Eternal Witness is not super essential to the deck. You can probably cut it. You may regret it some games, but if you find that you can't get value out of it most games you draw it, then cut it.
I agree. I would not include the Dismember too and go with Shriekmaw.
I cannot emphasize how good Orzhov Pontiff is. I highly recommend adding it. Let's say your opponent has Dark Confidant in play. What you can do is pod in your Orzhov Pontiff, and when his trigger goes on the stack, you sacrifice it and haunt the Dark Confidant. Now the Orzhov Pontiff's ETB will finish triggering and the Dark Confidant will die, thus immediately putting yet another trigger on the stack. This effectively wipes out all of his x/2's on his board, which will include his Deathrite Shamans and whatever else he's got. This will be devastating.
Because you are running the metamorph, you also want to run Reveillark. While Reveillark can just be used for value, you do more crazy stuff with it. For example, if you copy the Reveillark with your Metamorph, you can sacrifice the Metamorph as the Reveillkark trigger goes on the stack, and then bring back that same Metamorph and another creature once that trigger resolves. Rinse and repeat. You can do this trick to bring back every creature with power 2 or less out of your graveyard into play. You can also infinitely do damage with the redcap and get back everything else with Eternal Witness. You can also scry your deck with the seer rather than the aristocrat until you find exactly what you want.
This is why white is so essential to the deck. It adds so much power. Please don't forget to include these cards! It gives you more ways to win even if you don't have Melira in play.
I think it's likely that someone who plays standard will want a budget upgrade to dip their toes into modern, rather than someone who has none of the cards wants to dip their toes into modern and bypass standard altogether. A lot of people who don't have access to cards usually start with standard. There's a lot of people that play standard.
If they play standard, my list really is "budget" and still remains fairly competitive. If you get above average draws with your mana, you may just end up doing quite well, and this list will definitely give the player the experience of piloting a non-budget pod deck - meaning the play experience will likely be more satisfying and relevant for when they do get the more expensive cards down the line.
I think a lot of us are insisting on white because it adds a lot of power to the deck - not to mention adds more sideboard options - otherwise, there is little incentive to build a pod deck in modern because it likely won't be powerful enough.
I'd love to add a Ranger of Eos to reduce the variance in assembling the combo even more - even if it is just finding the seer - but I don't know where to cut. If we had access to Inquisition or Thoughtseize, we could cut Shriekmaw, but we don't. Ranger of Eos' stock goes down when we don't have a pod out though. Without access to getting dual Deathrite Shamans, the card is kind of lame for 4 mana.
Oh wow, didn't know that. lol. I just thought people didn't play it because it was only green creatures.
In that case, adding more combo pieces to the shell is a reasonable answer if the deck isn't running chord of calling. People are just going to bolt Fauna Shaman - it's too slow, and it's just going to waste your turns.
Summoner's Pact is still a $7 card, so not exactly budget. It's only green creatures though, like Green Sun's Zenith. It's super risky to play if they have a Tectonic Edge in play and/or they bolt your mana dork - it will force you to combo a turn or two later. If you can win the turn you play it, it can be a super good card though.
Congregation at Dawn gives you card disadvantage and it also has tempo loss, but you can assemble the combo very quickly with this card since it's a 3-mana tutor. Hell, you can get the entire combo if you don't have a single piece of it as it has no colour restriction. This card also has the advantage of being extremely cheap to obtain. Probably the best choice for budget, next to Jarod's Orders.
Jarad's Orders is another good budget option. It basically does what Summoner's Pact does (but isn't colour-restricted), however it'll cost mana on your turn, which makes you an entire turn slower. One upside to this is that the discarded creature works with Eternal Witness and Reveillark though, and you won't risk losing the game if your combo is disrupted or they bolted a mana dork and you can't pay the upkeep costs on Summoner's Pact. It'll do the job at least. It is nowhere near as good as Chord of Calling, but what is?
I think some testing would be required to see which of these 3 best candidates work best in the deck. You could also get 3 of each of the cheaper tutors and play test with them. If they both suck, then just get Chord of Calling and stop complaining
If one of these options actually functions okay, I guess I'd cut 2 or 3 of the following cards: Harmonic Sliver, Sin Collector, Thalia and one of the mana dorks. Thalia is probably the first to go to the sideboard, as it makes your tutoring much worse. Next would be Harmonic Sliver. I am not experienced enough to know if cutting the Sin Collector is better than cutting the mana dork - my gut says the mana dork - but I don't see where else to cut beyond these.
I suppose adding in more combo pieces and moving some of other cards to the sideboard could be a solution. Perhaps moving out harmonic sliver and sin collector and maybe one of the mana dorks can be cut to make more room. I don't really see how to increase the odds of getting your combo without chord of calling though, and there's a fat chance that card will go down in price ever again.
Green's sun zenith will only work some of the time with this version of the deck, as it won't tutor for a sac outlet :/ It's not a terrible inclusion. In the worst cases, you can just get more kitchen finks.
Wall of Omens may not be that bad either. It'll block many aggro creatures and help you dig, but with rancor running rampant right now with the aggro decks, I think walls are just wasted space. You really need kitchen finks :/
I think it's hard to build this deck on a budget, and I want to commend the effort for trying. I think skipping white though makes the deck underpowered to the point where it's not worth running, however. There are better modern decks that can be made for $50 that have more power than this. The white in pod decks is crucial.
Obviously on a budget, you can't get fetches, and even if deathrite shamans were cheaper, they'd be much worse without the fetches. This makes Birds of Paradise the only good mana dude really worth using to enable the use of white, which are not too expensive ($3.5 per card is not terrible). I think you have to make a concession here for good fixing, and it will draw out removal more than the other guys will, which makes your threats more potent.
I think you need white for Cartel Aristocrat, Orzhov Pontiff, Qasali Pridemage and Reveillark. All of these cards do very powerful things for the deck, and you want to be able to cast them if they are in your hand. Ranger of Eos is less exciting, as without Deathrite Shamans, there is little point to having it in the deck.
Sin Collector may also be a good inclusion as well.
I think Sigarda, Host of Herons is worth having in the deck. She'll give the deck another way to win. She's worth having, even if you have the non-budget version.
I guess these suggestions put it out of the $50 range, but I think the extra money adds great power to the deck, and if the person already owns Temple Gardens, Godless Shrines and Overgrown tombs from Standard, as well as some of the M13 and Innistrad check lands, the manabase won't be that terrible at all. It will be a shame not to take advantage of Deathrite Shaman and Fetches that can potentially win games in another way, but that's less important than these other changes.
Honestly, the deathrite shamans, chords and fetches are the only "essential" money cards for this deck, and so skipping those really reduces the cost while not completely gutting the deck's power. Thoughtseizes, while nice, are not terribly essential and Duress is not a bad replacement - it gets most of what you want anyway. Voice of Resurgence is also a very nice inclusion, and I admit that's going to depower the deck as well, but can't be helped.
And of course, 2-3 Gavony Townships wouldn't hurt either.
Alternatively, one way to improve the current deck while not adding a lot of money is to add Green Sun's Zenith, which only adds another $15-18 to the deck's cost - a playset is less than a single Chord. Since most of the creatures are green, you have another 4 cards to tutor for almost anything in the current list, which is bound to improve your winning percentage by a mile. This is much better than Fauna Shaman, just because it's so much faster to use. It gives you 8 chances to draw kitchen finks if you need them for example. I realize it doesn't get your gravedigger or the seer, but it's not strictly worse than Chord - it can be quite a bit better in some cases as its unconditionally faster to use.
Something like below, while definitely above $50, may be a good starting point for someone who's already committed in Standard. If they already have access to shocklands, the missing cards would very much appear like a budget deck.
With this mana-base, there's still an 83% chance you can cast a mana dork on turn 1 (which I'd like to point out, is exactly the same as the G/B budget version in this thread). This isn't as high as we'd like it to be, but can't really be helped unless we add fetches.
With the dual lands from standard, this deck is only an additional $66. So while not completely budget, it would be kind of like a budget deck for someone wanting to go from standard to modern.
Overall, the deck is not as good as the real thing, but I think it's a lot better than the budget version suggested here. You'll win a lot more games with this with the inclusion of white.
I cannot emphasize how good Orzhov Pontiff is. I highly recommend adding it. Let's say your opponent has Dark Confidant in play. What you can do is pod in your Orzhov Pontiff, and when his trigger goes on the stack, you sacrifice it and haunt the Dark Confidant. Now the Orzhov Pontiff's ETB will finish triggering and the Dark Confidant will die, thus immediately putting yet another trigger on the stack. This effectively wipes out all of his x/2's on his board, which will include his Deathrite Shamans and whatever else he's got. This will be devastating.
Because you are running the metamorph, you also want to run Reveillark. While Reveillark can just be used for value, you do more crazy stuff with it. For example, if you copy the Reveillark with your Metamorph, you can sacrifice the Metamorph as the Reveillkark trigger goes on the stack, and then bring back that same Metamorph and another creature once that trigger resolves. Rinse and repeat. You can do this trick to bring back every creature with power 2 or less out of your graveyard into play. You can also infinitely do damage with the redcap and get back everything else with Eternal Witness. You can also scry your deck with the seer rather than the aristocrat until you find exactly what you want.
This is why white is so essential to the deck. It adds so much power. Please don't forget to include these cards! It gives you more ways to win even if you don't have Melira in play.
If they play standard, my list really is "budget" and still remains fairly competitive. If you get above average draws with your mana, you may just end up doing quite well, and this list will definitely give the player the experience of piloting a non-budget pod deck - meaning the play experience will likely be more satisfying and relevant for when they do get the more expensive cards down the line.
I think a lot of us are insisting on white because it adds a lot of power to the deck - not to mention adds more sideboard options - otherwise, there is little incentive to build a pod deck in modern because it likely won't be powerful enough.
I'd love to add a Ranger of Eos to reduce the variance in assembling the combo even more - even if it is just finding the seer - but I don't know where to cut. If we had access to Inquisition or Thoughtseize, we could cut Shriekmaw, but we don't. Ranger of Eos' stock goes down when we don't have a pod out though. Without access to getting dual Deathrite Shamans, the card is kind of lame for 4 mana.
Oh wow, didn't know that. lol. I just thought people didn't play it because it was only green creatures.
In that case, adding more combo pieces to the shell is a reasonable answer if the deck isn't running chord of calling. People are just going to bolt Fauna Shaman - it's too slow, and it's just going to waste your turns.
I suppose you could use Congregation at Dawn (instant, but have to wait a turn. Not a bad option), Jarad's Orders (get it in your hand, but definitely slow), a flipped Garruk Relentless (even slower), Ranger of Eos (only gets the sac outlet though, so meh), or Summoner's Pact.
Summoner's Pact is still a $7 card, so not exactly budget. It's only green creatures though, like Green Sun's Zenith. It's super risky to play if they have a Tectonic Edge in play and/or they bolt your mana dork - it will force you to combo a turn or two later. If you can win the turn you play it, it can be a super good card though.
Congregation at Dawn gives you card disadvantage and it also has tempo loss, but you can assemble the combo very quickly with this card since it's a 3-mana tutor. Hell, you can get the entire combo if you don't have a single piece of it as it has no colour restriction. This card also has the advantage of being extremely cheap to obtain. Probably the best choice for budget, next to Jarod's Orders.
Jarad's Orders is another good budget option. It basically does what Summoner's Pact does (but isn't colour-restricted), however it'll cost mana on your turn, which makes you an entire turn slower. One upside to this is that the discarded creature works with Eternal Witness and Reveillark though, and you won't risk losing the game if your combo is disrupted or they bolted a mana dork and you can't pay the upkeep costs on Summoner's Pact. It'll do the job at least. It is nowhere near as good as Chord of Calling, but what is?
I think some testing would be required to see which of these 3 best candidates work best in the deck. You could also get 3 of each of the cheaper tutors and play test with them. If they both suck, then just get Chord of Calling and stop complaining
If one of these options actually functions okay, I guess I'd cut 2 or 3 of the following cards: Harmonic Sliver, Sin Collector, Thalia and one of the mana dorks. Thalia is probably the first to go to the sideboard, as it makes your tutoring much worse. Next would be Harmonic Sliver. I am not experienced enough to know if cutting the Sin Collector is better than cutting the mana dork - my gut says the mana dork - but I don't see where else to cut beyond these.
2 Forest
1 Plains
1 Swamp
3 Razorverge Thicket
4 Temple Garden
4 Overgrown Tomb
3 Woodland Cemetery
3 Godless Shrine
2 Gavony Township
Spells
2 Duress
3 Congregation at Dawn
4 Birthing Pod
Creatures
2 Avacyn's Pilgrim
1 Elves of Deep Shadow
4 Birds of Paradise
2 Viscera Seer
1 Wall of Roots
3 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
1 Cartel Aristocrat
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Eternal Witness
1 Sin Collector
1 Orzhov Pontiff
4 Kitchen Finks
2 Murderous Redcap
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Reveillark
1 Shriekmaw
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
1 Harmonic Sliver
1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
Green's sun zenith will only work some of the time with this version of the deck, as it won't tutor for a sac outlet :/ It's not a terrible inclusion. In the worst cases, you can just get more kitchen finks.
Wall of Omens may not be that bad either. It'll block many aggro creatures and help you dig, but with rancor running rampant right now with the aggro decks, I think walls are just wasted space. You really need kitchen finks :/
Obviously on a budget, you can't get fetches, and even if deathrite shamans were cheaper, they'd be much worse without the fetches. This makes Birds of Paradise the only good mana dude really worth using to enable the use of white, which are not too expensive ($3.5 per card is not terrible). I think you have to make a concession here for good fixing, and it will draw out removal more than the other guys will, which makes your threats more potent.
I think you need white for Cartel Aristocrat, Orzhov Pontiff, Qasali Pridemage and Reveillark. All of these cards do very powerful things for the deck, and you want to be able to cast them if they are in your hand. Ranger of Eos is less exciting, as without Deathrite Shamans, there is little point to having it in the deck.
Sin Collector may also be a good inclusion as well.
I think Sigarda, Host of Herons is worth having in the deck. She'll give the deck another way to win. She's worth having, even if you have the non-budget version.
I guess these suggestions put it out of the $50 range, but I think the extra money adds great power to the deck, and if the person already owns Temple Gardens, Godless Shrines and Overgrown tombs from Standard, as well as some of the M13 and Innistrad check lands, the manabase won't be that terrible at all. It will be a shame not to take advantage of Deathrite Shaman and Fetches that can potentially win games in another way, but that's less important than these other changes.
Honestly, the deathrite shamans, chords and fetches are the only "essential" money cards for this deck, and so skipping those really reduces the cost while not completely gutting the deck's power. Thoughtseizes, while nice, are not terribly essential and Duress is not a bad replacement - it gets most of what you want anyway. Voice of Resurgence is also a very nice inclusion, and I admit that's going to depower the deck as well, but can't be helped.
And of course, 2-3 Gavony Townships wouldn't hurt either.
Alternatively, one way to improve the current deck while not adding a lot of money is to add Green Sun's Zenith, which only adds another $15-18 to the deck's cost - a playset is less than a single Chord. Since most of the creatures are green, you have another 4 cards to tutor for almost anything in the current list, which is bound to improve your winning percentage by a mile. This is much better than Fauna Shaman, just because it's so much faster to use. It gives you 8 chances to draw kitchen finks if you need them for example. I realize it doesn't get your gravedigger or the seer, but it's not strictly worse than Chord - it can be quite a bit better in some cases as its unconditionally faster to use.
Something like below, while definitely above $50, may be a good starting point for someone who's already committed in Standard. If they already have access to shocklands, the missing cards would very much appear like a budget deck.
2 Forest
1 Plains
1 Swamp
3 Razorverge Thicket
4 Temple Garden
4 Overgrown Tomb
3 Woodland Cemetery
3 Godless Shrine
2 Gavony Township
Spells
4 Birthing Pod
2 Duress
2 Avacyn's Pilgrim
2 Elves of Deep Shadow
4 Birds of Paradise
2 Viscera Seer
1 Wall of Roots
3 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1 Cartel Aristocrat
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Eternal Witness
1 Harmonic Sliver
1 Sin Collector
1 Orzhov Pontiff
4 Kitchen Finks
2 Murderous Redcap
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Reveillark
1 Shriekmaw
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
With this mana-base, there's still an 83% chance you can cast a mana dork on turn 1 (which I'd like to point out, is exactly the same as the G/B budget version in this thread). This isn't as high as we'd like it to be, but can't really be helped unless we add fetches.
With the dual lands from standard, this deck is only an additional $66. So while not completely budget, it would be kind of like a budget deck for someone wanting to go from standard to modern.
Overall, the deck is not as good as the real thing, but I think it's a lot better than the budget version suggested here. You'll win a lot more games with this with the inclusion of white.