Evan - Pod

[John Galli]

Hey Evan, just curious dude what are you running in your Pod list? (either current or going forward with the new cards)

[Evan]

Planning on running the following - 4s feel a little crowded to me, but we'll see how that pans out. I might cut Hellrider (who I love, but typically is more aggressive then this deck wants to be) and a huntmaster (who is good, but feels you don't need an overabundance of) for 2 of the 1 mana instant flicker.

Naya Pod
4 Birds of Paradise 1G
2 Avacyn's Pilgrim 1G
3 Strangleroot Geist 2GG
2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben 2W
3 Blade Splicer 3W
1 Daybreak Ranger 3G
1 Fiend Hunter 3WW
1 Phyrexian Metamorph 4U
1 Solemn Simulacrum 4
3 Huntmaster of the Fells 4RG
1 Hellrider 4RR
2 Restoration Angel 4W
1 Acidic Slime 5GG
1 Geist-Honored Monk 5WW
1 Zealous Conscripts 5R
1 Wurmcoil Engine 6
1 Inferno Titan 6RR
1 Sun Titan 6WW
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite 7WW

2 Green Sun's Zenith
3 Birthing Pod

24 Lands
5 Forest
1 Mountain
2 Plains
4 Copperline Gorge
4 Razorverge Thicket
2 Rootbound Crag
4 Sunpetal Grove
2 Gavony Township


SB:
1 Acidic Slime 5GG
1 Thrun, the Last Troll 4GG
2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben 2W
2 Zealous Conscripts 5RR
2 Ancient Grudge 2R
2 Celestial Purge 2W
2 Surgical Extraction 2B
1 Huntmaster of the Fells 4GG
2 Ray of Revelation 2G


Cheers

[John Galli]

Nice list, I think it represents pretty much where you want to be with Pod right now. Here's my thoughts-

1.) I agree with you about the fours, it's the first thing that stuck out to me in the list that I didn't agree with. If it were me, I'd do -1 restoration angel, -1 hellrider. Restoration angel is truly fantastic in this deck but Huntsmaster has so much versatility in Pod and in all the games I playtested against Severa and all the PTQ side-battling, I found it to be the most difficult card to deal with. It's also right along the important part of the tempo for your deck and the card practically screams tempo with its abilities. Hellrider is just way too situational, he's a pedal to the floor card in a deck that doesn't need it 80% of the time.

2.) The 6 drop spot looks heavy when you add Elesh Norn in the mix with those 3, although I like those 3 so I don't know what I would cut there if anything.

3.) I think Daybreak Ranger is an allstar in this deck that probably needs to be heavier in either the main or sideboard of this deck. He was a very tough card for me to beat at the PTQ with B/W Tokens, Spirit-Delver was getting the most buzz and popularity of any deck just prior to Avacyn Restored, and Lingering Souls is still a very real card. Plus, when this guy flips he can basically take out anything in standard aside from Titans (and in a lot of lists even those go down when combined with g.blasts).

4.) I think the power of frites and the upcoming reanimator builds post-avacyn probably merit a third surgical extraction in the board (maybe over acidic slime since you already have x1 main and x2 grudge board).

5.) How has Geist-Honored Monk been for you? I always liked the card but I'm curious if he's what you want at the 5 spot. Don't forget that Kessig Cagebreakers is an option (although in this case I think maybe just dropping that 5 spot card might be best).

6.) Absolutely love Cloudshift, and love that it's an instant. Definitely jam a few of these in here like you mentioned. It's so retarded good in this deck.

[Travis Lannoye]

1. I agree with those two cuts, and I might even go down to 2 Huntmasters instead of 3.
2. Unless I'm reading the list wrong, there seems to be 3 six-drops in there: Sun Titan, Inferno Titan, and Wurmcoil Engine. That seems like just the right number to me. I wouldn't cut any of those.
3. I would go with 2 Daybreak Ranger, 2 Fiend Hunter, and 1 Blade Splicer. Pod decks in my experience have always had a problem with flying creatures, and I've never really liked Blade Splicer all that much. He's "just fine" if you don't have anything better to do than jam out bodies, but that's rarely the case.
4. Agree on a minimum of 3 Surgicals.
5. I like Geist-Honored Monk a lot. We used to run Wing Splicer in Bant-Pod prior to Innistrad as a way to deal with flying creatures, and this is a whole lot better because the tokens still fly after the Monk is dead. Definitely needs to stay as a 1-of.
6. Eh, I'm not a huge fan of this. If it had flashback, maybe I could see it, but it just seems like win-more to me.

Couple other points:
- How good is Green Sun's Zenith? There are no sixes or sevens, and the only five is Acidic Slime.
- I'd go with -1 Strangleroot Geist, +1 Viridian Emissary, for the sake of versatility. There are going to be a few times when the Emissary is just right.
- If this is supposed to be more of an aggressive aggro deck with a Pod chain as a backup plan, do we really need an Elesh Norn at 7?
- I've never really liked Thrun...what matchup is he actually good for?
- Since mono-black Zombies seems rather popular around these parts, and mono-red is sure to be on the rise, I would probably go up to 3 Celestial Purges.

[Evan]

Ironically, I'm far happier with Blade Splicer then Fiend Hunter. It just always seems to get removed, or I need to pod him away. I'll likely find a space for another daybreak ranger in the board. Cloudshift I like because it gives a bit of combat trickery in a deck that doesn't really have any as well as some solid value. I thought about cutting GSZ, but it gives you some more versatility, as well as essentially 5 different options (bop, strangleroot, daybreak, huntmaster, acidic).

I was running emissary, but it turns out the only real use is GSZing it (as podding away a dork to get emissary is counterintuitive) and as I went to only 2 GSZ it didn't feel worth it. Strangleroot gives this deck some needed wrath protection.

Elesh Norn has won me far too many games to ever even consider removing. There's plenty of games that go long, and she wins them all for you. Thrun is for control; with as much as cavern is likely to be played, he may be cut for Sigarda, who fills a similar role with evasion and without regeneration. More C purge is always good, but then I need to cut quite a few SB slots.


Cheers

[Evan]

So I went 4-0 on Tuesday. I went with the changes I decided. Restoration Angel and Cloudshift both were super nuts.

Match one played against Robb playing pretty stock delver. Game one he got a non aggressive draw and I just eventually ran enough creatures at him. Game two I mulliganed a semi keepable hand (3 lands g/w, my 2 remaining 6 drops, huntmaster, and metamorph) into a land/dork/4 3-4 mana cards and proceeding to not draw lands fast enough (and no red), stabalized at one for a short period until he pondered into vapor snag. Game three he got a fairly aggressive draw, got me down fairly low; stabalized with a huntmaster and splicer on the board. He act of aggression on my flipped huntmaster; I restoration angel it in response, and had an overwhelming advantage. So he was -1 card, -4 life, I was -1 card, +2 life, 2/2 wolf, 3/4 flyer. 5 for one =D (boarded in grudge, daybreak and huntmaster; should have boarded thalia, huntmaster, daybreak)

Match two played against Summ playing an odd wolf runnish ramp deck, running more ramp, silverblade, and some shennigans. Game one basically same as G1 first match, just ran over him with dudes. Game two, he goes dork -> somber sage (3 mana dork) for T3 primeval -> T4 birthing pod into elesh norn. So yeah....never winning that one. Game three is pretty tight, keep him off primeval briefly, but eventually gets it; he swings into my blade splicer/token and I cloudshift it to block and kill primeval before combat damage. He hero of bladehold with silverblade paladin bonded to it; swings into me, I block enough to not die (going to 2). Zealous Conscripts on my turn on hero and restoration angel to steal another dude gives me like 25 damage (boarded in conscripts and slime).

Match three was against jabe (I played against all regulars), who was playing g/w humans. Game one he gets stuck on 2 and overran him with dudes before he gets enough mana; blade splicer is awesome in this matchup. Game two low on mana and die (I think). Game three was pretty awesome; he gets crusader on 3 (this is scary as he is playing destiny and I think he has it). I fiend hunter it, blinking it with the trigger on the stack to permanently exile his crusader and put another dude under the fiend hunter and metamorph my geist and swing in. He goes another mirran crusader. I pass the turn; he angelic destinies his mirran crusader and in response I restoration angel blinking metamorph to fiend hunter his mirran crusader and proceed to dominate the game. (boarded in ray of revelation and huntmaster).

Match four against bobby playing B/W tokens, with basically the usual suspects (mortarpod, lingering souls, gather the townsfolk, and midnight haunting and 8 anthems). Game one I get a fairly aggressive draw, blade splicer earlish and beats a bit. He gathers and souls then T4 double anthems and swings; I restoration angel blade splicer and kill two tokens. Buy some time with geist-honored monk, get up to elesh norn and seal the game when I cloudshift elesh norn in response to oblivion ring trigger. Game two he gets no anthems and I overrun him with dudes. (board in huntmaster, daybreak, and ray of revelation)

I think the flicker effects give the deck some much needed shennanigans, it never felt like cloudshift was bad; the worst is if someone uses removal in response. The more removal someone runs the more you want to hold it to respond to their removal. Angel of Restoration felt super nuts basically every time I cast her but I'm not sure the deck can support more then 2. Typically was a 3/4 flyer and a 3/3 golem token for 4.



Naya Pod
4 Birds of Paradise 1G
2 Avacyn's Pilgrim 1G
3 Strangleroot Geist 2GG
2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben 2W
3 Blade Splicer 3W
1 Daybreak Ranger 3G
1 Fiend Hunter 3WW
1 Phyrexian Metamorph 4U
1 Solemn Simulacrum 4
2 Huntmaster of the Fells 4RG
2 Restoration Angel 4W
1 Acidic Slime 5GG
1 Geist-Honored Monk 5WW
1 Zealous Conscripts 5R
1 Wurmcoil Engine 6
1 Inferno Titan 6RR
1 Sun Titan 6WW
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite 7WW

2 Cloudshift
2 Green Sun's Zenith
3 Birthing Pod

24 Lands
5 Forest
1 Mountain
2 Plains
4 Copperline Gorge
4 Razorverge Thicket
2 Rootbound Crag
4 Sunpetal Grove
2 Gavony Township


SB:
1 Acidic Slime 5GG
1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben 2W
1 Daybreak Ranger 3G
2 Zealous Conscripts 5RR
2 Ancient Grudge 2R
2 Ray of Revelation 2G
2 Celestial Purge 2W
3 Surgical Extraction 1B
1 Huntmaster of the Fells 4GG



Cheers

[John Galli]

Enjoyed reading this, pod is always such a fun deck and cloudshift seems very good as expected. Surpised to not see sylvok replica in the board, this might help with a early sword or enchantment? Ray of Revelation was one of the stronger cards against me at the ptq when I played tokens, so glad to see you had that for the matchup

[Evan]

I have a sylvok replica somewhere (in other versions); typically against the decks you need it you can get acidic slime via pod or GSZ at the same time. I'd be more likely to put in a viridian corrupter, but even more likely to get a naturalize or 2 in the board (against enchantment or artifact heavy decks I'd like to board into 2 grudge/revelation and 2 naturalize). Prolly will drop the boarded acidic slime and something else.


Cheers