I'm thinking about adding a copy of thrun, the last troll maindeck in an Angel Pod deck, what do you think about this choice?? is a valid option or perform better in sideboard?? What card could be cut to make space for him??
I'm not a big fan of Thrun because one of the big reasons you want to run him - being uncounterable - doesn't count for much in this deck, as you're a) Podding into him, in which case you've resolved a Pod and thus have most of the heavy lifting done against decks running counter-magic, b) trying to Chord for him, in which case good luck having your 7-mana Chord resolve, or c) lucksacking into your 1-of that punishes decks that hold up mana for counters at exactly the right time, ie. never actually going to happen. If you just want a big unkillable hammer to close out games with, Sigarda, Host of Herons is miles better because she's evasive and a faster clock, but Angel Pod already has a very dangerous airforce bolstered by the Archangel herself that tends to ends games a couple of turns after taking control even without the combo.
In a field full of blue/red decks (e.g. delver, twin) and rock decks (e.g. jund, junk), what recommendations would you make for the maindeck? Which combo would you opt for, if any? I'm really unsure about this.
Scavenging Ooze in the main to eat up all the fuel for Snapcaster/Tarmogoyf. Maybe another form of graveyard hate (probably just a second Ooze). T1 discard main too, with Sin Collector/Entomber Exarch backup, or just not try to combo; the combo is best when decks don't want to interact with you at all, but most of the ones you listed (even Twin) are pretty fair and will kick your ass with Bolt/Decay.
I transmute a Dimir House Guard, paying for it using Crypt of Agadeem. Does/can the Crypt count the House Guard when it checks how much mana it produces?
But Spike Feeder is a horrible card during the games where you are a fair deck ie. most of them. If you're hurting for room, pick one combo or the other - the pros and cons have been discussed on and off pretty much since Archangel of Thune was printed, but there's too many good cards to put in the deck to weigh it down with underwhelming creatures from two different combos.
Not unless it powers up whatever engine you're using to make your deck go, which is pretty unlikely. When you go off with Eggs, what you kill your opponent with is irrelevant; the hard part is going off in the first place, so ideally your kill condition should be something that's not a blank card before you try to combo. (This is why Conley Woods was using Runed Servitor for a brief period in one of his post-banning Eggs builds.)
Also, you do see decks with Eldrazi in them in Modern, making mill a bad kill condition for combo decks without a lot of slots to spare in the first place.
BW Tokens and Mono-Blue Tron are pretty flexible and powerful for their cost. There's usually at least one player who will gravitate towards Storm, too.
What is the forum's opinion about Fiend Hunter? Double commitment to White is though but podding Voice into him could be fatal for some decks. Just random questions because I'm a new Melira player and this deck intrigues me.
Just... no. We already play Decay, Redcap, Shriekmaw, Linvala and Pontiff, which are much more efficient at answering problematic creatures. Hunter is bad because you can't Pod it away and because it is not a permanent solution, but most of all it makes attacking dangerous for you. If you attack and they kill Hunter before blockers are declared, they could get the creature back and mess with your attack, potentially killing an important creature in combat. I experienced that back when I was playing Kiki Pod: never again would I give my opponents the ability to blow me out like that. I strongly suggest you to do the same
Specifically about Anafenza though, only one of those cards listed does anything to her, and it's not a creature. I think Big Game Hunter is the way to go (possibly taking the place of the second SB Pontiff, for the people who play two), which will also take out the big WRB demon if that guy starts seeing play and big Goyfs and whatever other midrange finishers you come across. Would be nice if there was a discard outlet to go with it - I've played it in EDH alongside Survival of the Fittest and it's foul - but including something like Fauna Shaman is maybe a bit of a reach.
Do you think Anafenza could possibly replace Scooze MD or be packed SB for mirror and other recursion decks?
In the sideboard, maybe. Replacing Ooze, I don't think so; she doesn't do anything about cards that have already hit the graveyard, which is problematic against everything that isn't all-in 'yard-based combo. ...Also apparently I've been reading the card wrong this whole time, and she only cares about creatures. So, don't think about a way to fit her into your deck, think about a way to get her off the other side of the table.
Would a BUG pod be any good?(Control,Discard and we keep the combo in)
BUG (Sultai...) doesn't come with all the wonderful White hatebears, though, and a big big part of the sideboard are the 1-of dudes that just curbstomp specific decks. Counters, which for the most part aren't attached to creatures, are flexible but rarely as accurate as the answers you have in Linvala, Eidolon, Mindcensor, Pontiff, etc..
Yh I do agree that multiple pods are downright dirty but I feel that angel pod doesn't need 4 pods because the combo consists of just 2 creatures.
It's not as much about putting the combo together as it is that Pod is really, really good. You can win games without ever seeing a Pod, but you'll win more of them faster when you resolve one early, and I don't think there's a fair deck in the format that can beat two active Pods.
Also, Sin Collector and Entomber Exarch are better together because you can Pod one into the other. Exarch can either take a non-creature you saw with Sin Collector or Disentomb Sin Collector to exile another spell (worthwhile versus Snapcaster decks, Storm).
Arbor Elf might also be more workable with the extra fetches.
I had a question about a sideboard slot: Ethersworn Canonist versus Eidolon of Rhetoric versus Thalia, Guardian of Thraben. Currently I'm using Thalia because of the 2/1 first strike body, though the current thinking is more to go with the Bolt-proof Eidolon. I know whichever card of the three is brought in against Storm and decks that rely on Snapcaster (Thalia is also very marginal against Living End/Restore Balance decks); is there anything else that one of them does better/worse than the other, and do they get used anywhere else?
Wonder how good he'd be if it was an ETB instead of damage trigger.
Pretty sick, really. You're getting a Divination's worth of card advantage with a free bear thrown in. People played Court Hussar a bit in the Ravnica-era control decks, I think ETB!Cutpurse would have outclassed it by miles, especially in the mirror.
do you feel that this sort of list is worth pursuing, or is it a 'bant list for the sake of being bant'?
like, are there inherent advantages to a bant list that improve match ups? (note: replying to this guy but welcome all feedback)
In switching out Black for Blue, you lose discard, creatures that kill other creatures, and Abrupt Decay, and gain counterspells, creatures that bounce other creatures, and various forms of card advantage. Thoughtseize and Decay are Modern's analogues to Legacy's Force of Will, in that their existence makes all decks either be fair or be resilient, and there's no counterspell in Modern that's at the same strength - lots of strong situational ones, sure, but nothing that's as universal an answer as what Black has. With all creatures save a few fatties in combo decks having either low cost, an EtB ability, or both, bouncing a creature is not as good as killing it outright even if Venser can bounce more things than Shriekmaw can kill. So that's the reasons you don't really see Bant Pod lists, but if your playstyle is more reactive then there's no reason you can't try to make it work for you - it's still the same basic shell of Pod + value guys, you're just leaving mana open a lot more often, I would imagine.
Siege Rhino is a solid guy. Can't Decay it. Can't Bolt it. Rumbles over tokens and tiny men. Goes toe-to-toe with Goyf. Domes your opponent. Gains you some life. I want to try it in Pod but there's like a waiting list of half a dozen other creatures that want to be in the 4-drop slot. Seems like a good way to clean up with Junk.
I'm not a big fan of Thrun because one of the big reasons you want to run him - being uncounterable - doesn't count for much in this deck, as you're a) Podding into him, in which case you've resolved a Pod and thus have most of the heavy lifting done against decks running counter-magic, b) trying to Chord for him, in which case good luck having your 7-mana Chord resolve, or c) lucksacking into your 1-of that punishes decks that hold up mana for counters at exactly the right time, ie. never actually going to happen. If you just want a big unkillable hammer to close out games with, Sigarda, Host of Herons is miles better because she's evasive and a faster clock, but Angel Pod already has a very dangerous airforce bolstered by the Archangel herself that tends to ends games a couple of turns after taking control even without the combo.
Scavenging Ooze in the main to eat up all the fuel for Snapcaster/Tarmogoyf. Maybe another form of graveyard hate (probably just a second Ooze). T1 discard main too, with Sin Collector/Entomber Exarch backup, or just not try to combo; the combo is best when decks don't want to interact with you at all, but most of the ones you listed (even Twin) are pretty fair and will kick your ass with Bolt/Decay.
Also, you do see decks with Eldrazi in them in Modern, making mill a bad kill condition for combo decks without a lot of slots to spare in the first place.
Specifically about Anafenza though, only one of those cards listed does anything to her, and it's not a creature. I think Big Game Hunter is the way to go (possibly taking the place of the second SB Pontiff, for the people who play two), which will also take out the big WRB demon if that guy starts seeing play and big Goyfs and whatever other midrange finishers you come across. Would be nice if there was a discard outlet to go with it - I've played it in EDH alongside Survival of the Fittest and it's foul - but including something like Fauna Shaman is maybe a bit of a reach.
In the sideboard, maybe. Replacing Ooze, I don't think so; she doesn't do anything about cards that have already hit the graveyard, which is problematic against everything that isn't all-in 'yard-based combo. ...Also apparently I've been reading the card wrong this whole time, and she only cares about creatures. So, don't think about a way to fit her into your deck, think about a way to get her off the other side of the table.
BUG (Sultai...) doesn't come with all the wonderful White hatebears, though, and a big big part of the sideboard are the 1-of dudes that just curbstomp specific decks. Counters, which for the most part aren't attached to creatures, are flexible but rarely as accurate as the answers you have in Linvala, Eidolon, Mindcensor, Pontiff, etc..
It's not as much about putting the combo together as it is that Pod is really, really good. You can win games without ever seeing a Pod, but you'll win more of them faster when you resolve one early, and I don't think there's a fair deck in the format that can beat two active Pods.
Also, Sin Collector and Entomber Exarch are better together because you can Pod one into the other. Exarch can either take a non-creature you saw with Sin Collector or Disentomb Sin Collector to exile another spell (worthwhile versus Snapcaster decks, Storm).
I had a question about a sideboard slot: Ethersworn Canonist versus Eidolon of Rhetoric versus Thalia, Guardian of Thraben. Currently I'm using Thalia because of the 2/1 first strike body, though the current thinking is more to go with the Bolt-proof Eidolon. I know whichever card of the three is brought in against Storm and decks that rely on Snapcaster (Thalia is also very marginal against Living End/Restore Balance decks); is there anything else that one of them does better/worse than the other, and do they get used anywhere else?
Pretty sick, really. You're getting a Divination's worth of card advantage with a free bear thrown in. People played Court Hussar a bit in the Ravnica-era control decks, I think ETB!Cutpurse would have outclassed it by miles, especially in the mirror.
In switching out Black for Blue, you lose discard, creatures that kill other creatures, and Abrupt Decay, and gain counterspells, creatures that bounce other creatures, and various forms of card advantage. Thoughtseize and Decay are Modern's analogues to Legacy's Force of Will, in that their existence makes all decks either be fair or be resilient, and there's no counterspell in Modern that's at the same strength - lots of strong situational ones, sure, but nothing that's as universal an answer as what Black has. With all creatures save a few fatties in combo decks having either low cost, an EtB ability, or both, bouncing a creature is not as good as killing it outright even if Venser can bounce more things than Shriekmaw can kill. So that's the reasons you don't really see Bant Pod lists, but if your playstyle is more reactive then there's no reason you can't try to make it work for you - it's still the same basic shell of Pod + value guys, you're just leaving mana open a lot more often, I would imagine.