this deck is the one i'm currently working on, but my list will probably diverge from the norm in a couple of ways.
1) i'm running glen elendra archmage and sower of temptation as my "do stuff" four drops against tricky decks. both work well with angel.
2) i'm definitely running deceiver exarch as a way to pod instantly from 3 to 4, in a tight spot. it's really REALLY insane in the right instance.
3) my go-to chain enabler and friendly wrath-proofing creature is bloodghast. easy enough to fetch up by podding your birds. once there's one around (i.e. out of your library) you've pretty much always got a chain starting at cmc2. that's INSANE. it adds so much inevitability to the deck when you can pod from bloodghast straight through to sower of temptation or Glen Elendra with 2 mana (minimum) by just using the exarch.
this is a board state i've actually had:
my board: birthing pod, 2 lands. basically an empty board. not good.
my graveyard: 1x bloodghast, plus a few other things
my turn: play third land (green), bloodghast comes back, pod ghast for deceiver exarch, exarch untaps pod, use final land and 2 life to pod for sower of temptation stealing their titan... game ends in short order as they can't find removal in time [even if they had, i'd accelerated out a bunch of lands with titan and pulled so far ahead the game was effectively mine]
also worth mentioning that the following turn, i podded out a glen elendra archmage by returning a ghast with landfall and doing the 2-to-4 trick with exarch again, in order to protect my board from removal. paid the life and kept 2 blue sources up while doing this.
this isn't magical christmas land. all you need is a bloodghast hanging around and your deck can pod to 4 mana instantly. it's bonkers.
I, by no means, am trying to bust balls, but is it really wise to open up the deck to 5 color with a splash which requires BBB and BB? We already have access to similar effects with sparkmage and redcap for the messenger, (which comes in tapped so it can't defend) and the Bloodghast is roughly analogus to strangleroot which remains on color. I'm curious if the perceived inconsistency of adding spells that we can't realistically hope to hardcast is worth the marginal benefits? What are your thoughts?
I, by no means, am trying to bust balls, but is it really wise to open up the deck to 5 color with a splash which requires BBB and BB? We already have access to similar effects with sparkmage and redcap for the messenger, (which comes in tapped so it can't defend) and the Bloodghast is roughly analogus to strangleroot which remains on color. I'm curious if the perceived inconsistency of adding spells that we can't realistically hope to hardcast is worth the marginal benefits? What are your thoughts?
first thing of note is that i'm not running any red cards except kiki-jiki, mirror breaker. and i've cut down my maindeck kiki's to 1 (and one in the board). i'm running heavier black mana than most decks of this type and i'm avoiding redcap and sparkmage.
i run a single copy (of geralf's messenger) in the SB and board it in against certain matchups (and it's no longer in my last post, as you can see).
the main thing is bloodghast. i've been in many situations with creatures in the yard (post wrath or removal), pod on field, where you'd be helpless and relying on topdecks, if it wasn't for the bloodghast in the yard. i always fetch out the ghast as my first point of call, and once it's out, you've got amazing inevitability. and it's not that hard to hardcast when you only run 2 or 3 of them in the entire deck (and everything else is easy to hardcast).
strangleroot geist is great and all that, but realistically once it's removed or dealt with (pillar of flame?) it's no longer giving you any value.
you have to kill it twice, true, but once it's gone it's gone. i'd rather use ghast and have repeatable cmc2 podding "at will", so to speak.
i've won games i had no business winning, just because my opponent's mass removal was effectively blanked by ghast. control decks can curve perfectly into their targeted and mass removal like clockwork, but bringing out chain after chain quickly runs them out of resources and locks them down.
obviously, killing the pod is another matter. but this happens far less than killing of creatures.
Thanks for explaining your reasoning. I wish pod (rather than melira) would have its own section so this sort of a deck would be given its own room to develop. I'll be interested to see how the results add up over time.
Thanks for explaining your reasoning. I wish pod (rather than melira) would have its own section so this sort of a deck would be given its own room to develop. I'll be interested to see how the results add up over time.
me too.
i see bloodghast purely as an enabler in this deck, and normally that would ring alarm bells (i.e. doesn't it do anything by itself?) but in all seriousness it's SO good as an enabler, i can't NOT run it.
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Hey. This deck has been interesting me lately and I was wondering... How do you get the kiki-jiki out? Hope to draw into him or chord? I just don't see any 5 drops... Unless I'm being blind.
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Ghave, the Guru of Spores
Mayael the Anima
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i see bloodghast purely as an enabler in this deck, and normally that would ring alarm bells (i.e. doesn't it do anything by itself?) but in all seriousness it's SO good as an enabler, i can't NOT run it.
Well, you are speaking of a different deck, different color, different pod chain with all the pro and cons that it implies. Birthing pod decks have mannnnnny varients because the card itself is so good.
The way you describe your deck is more a midrange good stuff pod deck than a pure combo pod deck which we are discussing here
Hey. This deck has been interesting me lately and I was wondering... How do you get the kiki-jiki out? Hope to draw into him or chord? I just don't see any 5 drops... Unless I'm being blind.
answer d: all of the above
with pod: 4cc creature: 4 angel, 1 redcap, 1 linvala
and obviously with chord of calling: "8" mana and with normal mana: 5 mana (3 red is the potential diffcult part)
it changes all the time, you just need to be aware of all the possibility.
With Koopas list at the beginning, it seems that the deck has become more pod kiki combo and less of a deck that can win off the back of its aggro creatures. Has anyone playing this list found it to be consistent enought to win with just the combo? I play naya pod that is aggro first and has 2 kiki as a secondary wincon with my angels and zealous conscripts and it beats down like a dream
Originally Posted by Solaran_X
I carry a briefcase handcuffed to my wrist whenever I play Vintage. Inside that briefcase is a GPS and launch codes for a nuclear missile that is set to home in on that particular GPS. If someone steals my ****, everyone dies.
With Koopas list at the beginning, it seems that the deck has become more pod kiki combo and less of a deck that can win off the back of its aggro creatures. Has anyone playing this list found it to be consistent enought to win with just the combo? I play naya pod that is aggro first and has 2 kiki as a secondary wincon with my angels and zealous conscripts and it beats down like a dream
The deck still does beat down quite well but, like Melira Pod, the plans are:
A) Combo-kill
B) Beatdown kill.
Granted, you are normally beating down as the game progresses, you aren't just switching gears midgame.
No, Naya Twin Pod is not consistent enough to win with the combo 100% of the time. However, it has a very serviceable Plan B in the Angel Chain (I detailed it on Page 1, I'm tired of giving the full details--I've probably posted Angel Chain explanations 10 times in this forum), and I often win with the Angel Chain. The Angel Chain also prepares the "Exarch Twin" combo nicely (this may be necessary against the mirror)--just have multiple Restoration Angels out and Pod one of them into Kiki-Jiki.
I've also won through raw beats--I remember one game against another player's (suboptimal) RDW list where I won by blinking Huntmaster of the Fells over and over again with Restoration Angel.
For me, I win in different ways depending on who I'm facing. Against jund, they have too removal and targeted discard to combo even with a pod or chord, so I usually go beatdown. Against red, I also usually go Aggro, I side out pods to save life and just blink finks and hit for 3 repeatedly. In the pod mirror, it's usually a combo race, and against most blue decks, I'm actively trying to combo. Against tron, it goes either way, but I usually combo. Both are perfectly viable plans, and you have to adjust depending on your hand.
Ya against Jun plan number one is get as many Finks and Angels as possible, with Conscripts adding the surprise factor as well. Redcap is nice to take out Bob'S and Lili's too so there is that. And if they tap out just combo. If u have pod finks and angels u can just win on the spot with conscripts now so that's helpful
What is the consensus on the plan of attack for storm? When I combo, it usually means that my mana is too occupied to play my disruption, and when I do disruptive beatdown, it usually gives them time to find an answer, short of the canonist Thalia draw.
Also, what kind of storm hate are people using. I'd like something that doesn't die to combust, as they sully being that in against te combo anyway.
With that plan, how do you find the matchup goes? I bring in more hate than that, an I still usually have trouble post board. Unless I have a chord of calling. The trick is to chord up a canonist mid combo. It's like a silence, and it completely stops them after they've blown most of their resources.
Another chain I found during testing, provided you play Exarch.
Your board:
A two drop, a three drop, Birthing Pod, 3 mana and 6 life available. (or 4 mana and 4 life ect ect)
Pod the Two drop for Exarch, untap Pod.
Pod the three drop for Angel, blink Exarch, untap Pod.
Pod the Angel for Kiki-Jiki. Combo kill them.
I will update the OP with Pod chains either today or tomorrow. I have been busy testing for the GP next weekend.
Exarch and conscripts win you so many games out of nowhere. I was at 1 against a dominating uw player with no cards in hand and only a bunch of mana dorks and a finks, and bunch of lands. He tapped out, I topdecked a pod, and went exarch into angel into Kiki for the game.
all you need is a pod and a 2-drop and it's basically either: 2, 4 life; steal target creature
or easier, GG2; steal target creature.
they don't have removal? gg. rinse and repeat (that's why there's 2 of them in there).
it's spectacular. being able to pod sower/angel into zealous conscripts is just the icing on the cake. you can skip so much of the chain with exarch/conscripts it feels like cheating, lol. as my singleton 6-drop i run massacre wurm as an MVP against any kind of small-ish creatures strategy. you can pod it out on turn three with a good draw so it works brilliantly as a finisher or a super-removal spell.
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1) i'm running glen elendra archmage and sower of temptation as my "do stuff" four drops against tricky decks. both work well with angel.
2) i'm definitely running deceiver exarch as a way to pod instantly from 3 to 4, in a tight spot. it's really REALLY insane in the right instance.
3) my go-to chain enabler and friendly wrath-proofing creature is bloodghast. easy enough to fetch up by podding your birds. once there's one around (i.e. out of your library) you've pretty much always got a chain starting at cmc2. that's INSANE. it adds so much inevitability to the deck when you can pod from bloodghast straight through to sower of temptation or Glen Elendra with 2 mana (minimum) by just using the exarch.
this is a board state i've actually had:
my board: birthing pod, 2 lands. basically an empty board. not good.
my graveyard: 1x bloodghast, plus a few other things
my opponent's board: primeval titan, birds of paradise, several lands
my turn: play third land (green), bloodghast comes back, pod ghast for deceiver exarch, exarch untaps pod, use final land and 2 life to pod for sower of temptation stealing their titan... game ends in short order as they can't find removal in time [even if they had, i'd accelerated out a bunch of lands with titan and pulled so far ahead the game was effectively mine]
also worth mentioning that the following turn, i podded out a glen elendra archmage by returning a ghast with landfall and doing the 2-to-4 trick with exarch again, in order to protect my board from removal. paid the life and kept 2 blue sources up while doing this.
this isn't magical christmas land. all you need is a bloodghast hanging around and your deck can pod to 4 mana instantly. it's bonkers.
really guys. this is a DECK.
first thing of note is that i'm not running any red cards except kiki-jiki, mirror breaker. and i've cut down my maindeck kiki's to 1 (and one in the board). i'm running heavier black mana than most decks of this type and i'm avoiding redcap and sparkmage.
i run a single copy (of geralf's messenger) in the SB and board it in against certain matchups (and it's no longer in my last post, as you can see).
the main thing is bloodghast. i've been in many situations with creatures in the yard (post wrath or removal), pod on field, where you'd be helpless and relying on topdecks, if it wasn't for the bloodghast in the yard. i always fetch out the ghast as my first point of call, and once it's out, you've got amazing inevitability. and it's not that hard to hardcast when you only run 2 or 3 of them in the entire deck (and everything else is easy to hardcast).
strangleroot geist is great and all that, but realistically once it's removed or dealt with (pillar of flame?) it's no longer giving you any value.
you have to kill it twice, true, but once it's gone it's gone. i'd rather use ghast and have repeatable cmc2 podding "at will", so to speak.
i've won games i had no business winning, just because my opponent's mass removal was effectively blanked by ghast. control decks can curve perfectly into their targeted and mass removal like clockwork, but bringing out chain after chain quickly runs them out of resources and locks them down.
obviously, killing the pod is another matter. but this happens far less than killing of creatures.
me too.
i see bloodghast purely as an enabler in this deck, and normally that would ring alarm bells (i.e. doesn't it do anything by itself?) but in all seriousness it's SO good as an enabler, i can't NOT run it.
Ghave, the Guru of Spores
Mayael the Anima
Isamaru, Hound of Konda
Well, you are speaking of a different deck, different color, different pod chain with all the pro and cons that it implies. Birthing pod decks have mannnnnny varients because the card itself is so good.
The way you describe your deck is more a midrange good stuff pod deck than a pure combo pod deck which we are discussing here
So back on topic
answer d: all of the above
with pod: 4cc creature: 4 angel, 1 redcap, 1 linvala
and obviously with chord of calling: "8" mana and with normal mana: 5 mana (3 red is the potential diffcult part)
it changes all the time, you just need to be aware of all the possibility.
Thanks to Argetlam @ Hakai Studios!
The deck still does beat down quite well but, like Melira Pod, the plans are:
A) Combo-kill
B) Beatdown kill.
Granted, you are normally beating down as the game progresses, you aren't just switching gears midgame.
BGStandard Green AggroGB
UWRGModern Saheeli CobraGRWU
UBRGLegacy StormGRBU
Wizards Certified Rules Advisor
I've also won through raw beats--I remember one game against another player's (suboptimal) RDW list where I won by blinking Huntmaster of the Fells over and over again with Restoration Angel.
taimla1 on MTGO
Thanks Hero's of the Plane
Modern
-------------
xRxAffinityxRx
Also, what kind of storm hate are people using. I'd like something that doesn't die to combust, as they sully being that in against te combo anyway.
taimla1 on MTGO
-1 Cunning Sparkmage
-1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
-1 Spellskite
-1 Zealous Conscripts
+1 Ethersworn Canonist
+1 Qasali Pridemage
+2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
BGStandard Green AggroGB
UWRGModern Saheeli CobraGRWU
UBRGLegacy StormGRBU
Wizards Certified Rules Advisor
taimla1 on MTGO
BGStandard Green AggroGB
UWRGModern Saheeli CobraGRWU
UBRGLegacy StormGRBU
Wizards Certified Rules Advisor
Your board:
A two drop, a three drop, Birthing Pod, 3 mana and 6 life available. (or 4 mana and 4 life ect ect)
Pod the Two drop for Exarch, untap Pod.
Pod the three drop for Angel, blink Exarch, untap Pod.
Pod the Angel for Kiki-Jiki. Combo kill them.
I will update the OP with Pod chains either today or tomorrow. I have been busy testing for the GP next weekend.
BGStandard Green AggroGB
UWRGModern Saheeli CobraGRWU
UBRGLegacy StormGRBU
Wizards Certified Rules Advisor
taimla1 on MTGO
i find that with those numbers, you can combo up kiki when you need to and there's always the finks/angel overwhelm strategy.
but my new means of attack has been pretty different over the last few days:
running 2x sower of temptation and 3x restoration angel with exarch as a 3 drop.
all you need is a pod and a 2-drop and it's basically either:
2, 4 life; steal target creature
or easier, GG2; steal target creature.
they don't have removal? gg. rinse and repeat (that's why there's 2 of them in there).
it's spectacular. being able to pod sower/angel into zealous conscripts is just the icing on the cake. you can skip so much of the chain with exarch/conscripts it feels like cheating, lol. as my singleton 6-drop i run massacre wurm as an MVP against any kind of small-ish creatures strategy. you can pod it out on turn three with a good draw so it works brilliantly as a finisher or a super-removal spell.