here's my current list. the manabase isn't really competitive yet (simple lack of funds) so i'll leave it out for the moment. the rest of it is very effective and i haven't had any major losses yet against any deck in the field (a few close games and some losses due to misplay, but no "rock beats scissors" scenarios). in other words it's strong in the meta.
i've ended up cutting bloodghasts despite my love for their recurring ability.
deck named "cheaty-pod" because more often than not i'm podding THEIR guys.
spellskite beats delver and burn (what vapor snag? lol) and i actually upped the count from 2 to 3 because of how incredible it is at protecting your board-state.
the deck is purposefully thin at the top end to avoid drawing into dead cards early and relying too much on the birthing pod. sower of temptation is an all-star. steal their guy, pod their guy. bonus. comes down cheaper and easier and more effectively than zealous conscripts as i'm running pretty deep into blue for glen elendra, spellskite and exarch. restoration angel resets the sower.
just a word on sower vs. conscripts. this deck isn't looking to beat down early, so the likelihood is that a conscripts won't threaten them into blocking their stolen dude and losing out on trades. Soewr threatens them much more by turning the board in your favour during their turn as well. if you can protect it and maybe even pod off their dudes and reset with angel, you've basically got the game in a bag. it's incredibly effective.
spellskite/glen protects your pod/sower and sower can make surprise blockers for you out of your opponent's dudes. sometimes all you need is sower on the board. pod their guy, restoration angel resets sower. steal another guy... rinse repeat.
final note on having 1x kiki-jiki:
i found having a 1/1/1 split between kiki-jiki, reveillark and loaming shaman allows me to have more of a well-rounded game plan vs more decks. if my kiki dies, i can get it back in one of two ways, but it also allows me to get back OTHER stuff in my deck so it's more versatile. there is an argument about needing pod for this kind of versatility to work, but then if you're comboing off, you'll need the pod anyway. this just allows you to not insta-lose vs. major creature removal.
most consistently useful card in the deck (that nobody expects)? massacre wurm blows out any small-creatures strategy. blowing up their geist of saint traft or delver, huntmaster or snapcaster, various tokens is a BIG game. even if they have a vapor snag, the damage is done. add to that the fact that zealous conscripts let's you cheat from 4-to-6 in the pod chain, it's downright disgusting.
today's lesson. if you're not running conscripts-into-massacre wurm in your pod chain, you're doing it wrong.
Also, for those of you going to Columbus, what kind of a meta are you expecting? I've only played on modo, where storm and burn are disproportionately represented because they are cheap. Also, I've yet to face a twin deck once, despite doing 5 dailies, 3 8-mans and countless 2-man queues. I got combo-ed by twin once, and that was out of storm's sideboard. Is it really played that seldom, or is that just a fluke/quirk of the modo metagame.
It's hard to pin-point the meta is such an open format. If someone would ask me what they should play, or at least what I think is good to take to a Modern GP this weekend, I would say:
Naya Pod
Melira Pod
RUG Delver
WUR Delver
UW Angel/CawBlade
Faeries
Jund
RG Tron
Twin
Storm
Affinity
and then to a lesser extent:
Merfolk
Burn
Zoo
and I guess Tokens
I do expect a lot of Pod decks, it did well at the last GP which is why I have opted for a MD Linvala. I do expect a lot of the aggro control decks. The are all different in their cards but similar in the way they play. Other than that, assuming something doesn't get broken (which I wouldn't be surprised, C-Bus is notorious for breaking formats), I think the remaining decks will see a slice of the meta but won't be so significant for me to alter my deck in a way to skew my deck more favorably against them. I also do think there will be a lot of Merfolk players, at least more than they should be, but I believe most of them will be bad.
With more than 2, I always get kiki-flooded, which is fatal more often than not. If you draw one, you can just hold it till you can resolve it without issue, but if you draw two, they can be stranded in hand, but you still aren't going to resolve one unless the coast is clear anyway. This was a problem that I noticed when watching Jarvis Yu's video, he would draw 2 kiki's and they would sit there doing nothing while he got beaten to death. I didn't really like his list on the whole, but that is neither here nor there.
I couldn't imagine running less than 4 chords, with wall of roots adding two mana, I'm almost happier to see chord that I am to see pod. I win far more games off it than I do with pod. The ambush factor along with it's versatility has proven very useful to me, and I almost never have trouble getting the 8 mana for kiki between convoke and mana dorks.
I'll consider a MD linvala, because I am noticing Pod steadily increasing in popularity, but I used to run it, and it was very bad for me in many matchups. A 3 power flier for four isn't what it used to be, I found it was dead against many of my tough matchups, such as storm and tron. It wasn't aggressive enough to do any real damage, and I was finding I was having more trouble casting it that I was casting Kiki-Jiki, though I didn't use Koopa's mana base involving rugged prairie.
@purklefluff
I don't really like massacre wurm, because you don't really want to be podding away your fives and it's a huge strain on your mana base. Exarch itself was a stretch, but it's only 1 blue, and you have a ton of mana dorks and fetches to fix your mana base. Massacre wurm is only hardcastable if you draw it by using 3 BoP, which has happened to me, but I wouldn't rely on it. It's not good enough against the major decks to warrant inclusion, it's not like an elesh norn, where the -2/-2 sticks around. Also, I don't like natures claim because you're playing a pod deck with access to creatures like qasali pridemage and harmonic sliver, which are much better in context. I'm assuming Pilgrim over Hierarch is more a question of budget, so I'll leave that. Just my two cents.
With more than 2, I always get kiki-flooded, which is fatal more often than not. If you draw one, you can just hold it till you can resolve it without issue, but if you draw two, they can be stranded in hand, but you still aren't going to resolve one unless the coast is clear anyway. This was a problem that I noticed when watching Jarvis Yu's video, he would draw 2 kiki's and they would sit there doing nothing while he got beaten to death. I didn't really like his list on the whole, but that is neither here nor there.
Is the same video with Reid Duke at SCG or a separate video? Regardless, I have liked three Kiki's a lot.
I couldn't imagine running less than 4 chords, with wall of roots adding two mana, I'm almost happier to see chord that I am to see pod. I win far more games off it than I do with pod. The ambush factor along with it's versatility has proven very useful to me, and I almost never have trouble getting the 8 mana for kiki between convoke and mana dorks.
Agreed. 4 Chord or bust.
I'll consider a MD linvala, because I am noticing Pod steadily increasing in popularity, but I used to run it, and it was very bad for me in many matchups. A 3 power flier for four isn't what it used to be, I found it was dead against many of my tough matchups, such as storm and tron. It wasn't aggressive enough to do any real damage, and I was finding I was having more trouble casting it that I was casting Kiki-Jiki, though I didn't use Koopa's mana base involving rugged prairie.
It all depends if you think you will see a lot of Pod decks.
its the same list as the ones in the Reid Duke videos. He runs 4 Kiki's tho and im noticing im drawing 2 a lot less with 3 then when i was playing 4. Conscripts filled in for the 4th Kiki-Jiki flawlessly
I tried out the exarch and didn't like it again, same reasons as before. The crazy good situations never came up, but the mana was an issue - there were very few situations where i could afford to use an early fetch to get what was essentially a mountain that cost 2 life.
It could very easily just be my play style, as i tend to be going for value and aggression with the combo as a secondary, since i usually end up playing around everything i can think of.
I also agree that conscripts and 4 chords are a must.
Township has been pretty good for me in MUs like jund where value is king. It's your silver bullet against the midrange decks.
@purklefluff
I don't really like massacre wurm, because you don't really want to be podding away your fives and it's a huge strain on your mana base. Exarch itself was a stretch, but it's only 1 blue, and you have a ton of mana dorks and fetches to fix your mana base. Massacre wurm is only hardcastable if you draw it by using 3 BoP, which has happened to me, but I wouldn't rely on it. It's not good enough against the major decks to warrant inclusion, it's not like an elesh norn, where the -2/-2 sticks around. Also, I don't like natures claim because you're playing a pod deck with access to creatures like qasali pridemage and harmonic sliver, which are much better in context. I'm assuming Pilgrim over Hierarch is more a question of budget, so I'll leave that. Just my two cents.
you are correct about pilgrim. *shrug*
my list is currently blue/green/black with lands such as glacial fortress, marsh flats and gemstone mine filling in the white component for angel. obviously this is a budget manabase, but it has always worked for me so far in over 50 games.
i'm fairly heavily into blue for sower of temptation, and most of my lands can produce black or red as well. this allows hardcasting massacre wurm easy. it's never been a dead card in my hand, and because there's only one in the deck, you rarely draw it. bottom line: it's not a problem.
kiki-jiki, however, can be tricky due to his triple red. i've not had a problem so far (as i said, most of my lands can produce red as well) but i can foresee a potential 'dead card' scenario.
with only 2 red cards in the whole deck (singleton zealots, singleton kiki) my deck works fine and consistently comboes off each time i want to. most games i don't even need to, as the pressure from 2-drop-into-exarch-into-sower is just too much for most decks to deal with. podding their guy is a joke.. being able to use sower defensively as well as offensively has saved my butt more than a few times, enabling me to combo off next turn with counter-backup from either spellskite or glen elendra.
it's a good list. give it a go.
i personally would not run pod without a blue contingent. spellskite alone is worth a blue splash, not even counting the powerful sower.
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I personally like township. Works well with persisted, and it has won me a fair number of games, including the quad BoP beatdown. I was flooded out an in 6 turns I'd draw 4 birds and 2 lands. Fortunately one of them was township, so it didn't matter that I never got another spell, because township carried me to the win. It gets out of hand surprisingly fast, but I agree that the mana is tight as it is, so I could certainly see the argument for cutting it.
Has anyone tried playing without eternal witness. I just find myself siding it out in nearly every matchup. It rarely gets me any decent value and the only games it's won for me directly or otherwise were by using it as a 3cc 2/1 beater, or as 3cc pod fodder. I think I'd rather use the slot for something more useful, but I'm reluctant to cut it because it is very useful in theory. What are your experiences with it? Has it ever been stellarly good? It's fine or course, but fine doesn't really cut it at a gp.
Also, I agree that sower is nuts, I just can't fit it in. I'm not cutting white because most of my board cards are white, and Angels are nuts, but I wish I could squeeze a sower in, but the mana won't support it, and I can't cut red or green obviously.
I do board her out, but only because I have more specific cards to bring in. Game 1 though she has a lot of uses as she is generally good against pretty much everything. If you have something else in mind, I could see cutting her.
I might keep Township in, but I rarely activate it. Maybe by just having it in play will cause my opponent's to play differently.
On an unrelated not, I just played against the RBu Reanimator deck. We went to G3 after I mull'd to 4 in Game 2. Turn 4 I have a Finks, and Angel, a Pod, and 4 lands in play. They are all Mountains from Blood Moon. I am 23 life.
On his turn he combos me with Emrakul and attacks. I have a Rugged Prairie in hand so I sac my 4 lands, my Angel, and my Finks and go to 8. I end up podding my Finks for a Redcap and pod that for a Kiki for which I slowly grind him out as he can't set up another combo kill.
I can't really think of anything at the moment to replace witness with, I was just trying to get other people's input because she's never been amazing for me.
Also, forked bolt or bonfire? Forked bolt seems to have more relevant matches, but bonfire is better in the matchups that it's good in, if that makes any sense. That and I like bonfire against jund, while I do not like forked bolt there at all.
taimla, i meant to ask you when you played it against me the other day in the last round of a DE, but do you think that forked is actually good in the mirror? I only bring in one because it's only actually good against a certain kind of draw. It only kills the mana druids, etc. I'm almost thinking that we only really want it when on the draw.
I definitely want 2 against the melira build, but the naya build just doesn't seem that weak to it. It happened to be a huge blowout against me because i had two birds, but if i had a birds/noble-less draw, it might as well have been blank.
I find it's alright, but I don't bring both in in the play. On the draw, it helps me catch up to your t1 mana guy if I can't match it, and I find a lot of the naya hands rely pretty heavily on birds or hierarch. I also fin you can usually find a use for it somewhere later in the game, such as killing pridemages or sparkmages. That being said, it doesn't hit much, which is why I think I'd like bonfire more.
I currently have two Bonfire in my SB right now, but I really don't like them in the mirror. Post bored I want Combust, Linvala, and an extra Artifact destruction card. I play Bonfire over Forked Bolt because of it's power against decks like Elves and Tokens.
I've been looking for a Modern deck to commit to and buy into, I really think I'm going to invest in this deck and hopefully it won't be obsolete when I finish. I have affinity and storm, and splinter twin/kiki combo but I'm not really liking any of them at all.
I probably should be running four Chords, but...there are just so many things I want to be playing, slots are hard. Chord I find awkward, but then I'm not running the full four Wall of Roots either which I guess I also probably should be.
Less than three Kiki still seems horribly wrong to me. Drawing multiple Kiki is not great, but Kiki is not exactly hard to kill. If you never ever cast him unless you're about to combo out then you obviously don't want the set, but he provides tons of value even when you don't have a combo piece in sight, just copying Kitchen Finks and things.
Truth be told I'm strongly considering starting my list over from scratch because there are a number of things I think the current build does wrong but I find it difficult to change things adequately. (This is why I haven't posted it yet either.)
I've always found Kiki-Jiki to be an absolute lightning rod for removal. I cast him once on Turn 4 against RDW, without fully assembling the combo, and he got Bolted immediately. (Granted, I also had an Obstinate Baloth in play, and I copied the Baloth in response.)
However, I will never be comfortable with 4 Kiki-Jiki, and I like my other card choices too much to bump him up to 3. I've found I can only generally rely on Kiki-Jiki to activate for one turn. Given that he's almost a 5-mana Clone with that in mind, I only play him when I can combo off, when I can copy really good, expensive creatures like Obby Baloth or Reveillark, or when I can kill that turn anyway (there was one situation against RG Artifact Tron when all I needed was a 2-power body with Haste). I doubt I'll get enough value from copying creatures that are 3 mana or less like Kitchen Finks--about the only one of those I'm willing to copy with Kiki-Jiki is Eternal Witness.
Has anyone tried playing without eternal witness. I just find myself siding it out in nearly every matchup. It rarely gets me any decent value and the only games it's won for me directly or otherwise were by using it as a 3cc 2/1 beater, or as 3cc pod fodder. I think I'd rather use the slot for something more useful, but I'm reluctant to cut it because it is very useful in theory. What are your experiences with it? Has it ever been stellarly good?
Also, I agree that sower is nuts, I just can't fit it in. I'm not cutting white because most of my board cards are white, and Angels are nuts, but I wish I could squeeze a sower in, but the mana won't support it, and I can't cut red or green obviously.
2 things:
1) i found that loaming shaman is situationally better than eternal witness, so i run one in main, and one witness in board against heavy artifact removal. it works for me.
2) i found a sweet spot where the only white cards i run are kitchen finks and restoration angel, and seeing as finks is also green, i can run fairly heavy blue/green in the deck, with a splash to accommodate our 5 drop red legend at RRR if you draw it. i never have any issues casting angel as it only needs the one W. and i've dropped kiki down to a singleton as i've got three ways of getting it back into play.
sower of temptation has continually gone up in my estimation. i'm fairly certain she's now the best card in the deck.
yesterday, from a losing board position:
opponent: 2x hero of bladehold
me: pod.
i played wall of roots, then podded from wall of roots into sower (via the cheaty exarch) and stole my opponent's hero of bladehold. used it to block theirs. following turn i podded their hero away fetching a zealous conscripts to take their final hero, played restoration angel blinking the conscripts (to untap my pod) and podded their second hero away to fetch kiki-jiki. then i promptly won with angel/kiki.
sure, i could have comboed up sooner in this scenario... but when i did combo... even if they'd killed kiki, i'd removed his board presence and built up my own. this line of play was safer and more resilient to disruption.
without sower, this kind of abusive play wouldn't be possible.
"naya pod" assumes that all other colour combinations of pod deck are uncompetitive.
this is obviously not the case. there are potential avenues in all five colours. i've been having success playing a bant pod deck.
may i suggest branching pod decks into sub-themes. some are combo, some are control, some are midrange. having one thread isn't good enough at this stage because pod represents so many different strategies. the pod is just the enabler, not the strategy.
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i've ended up cutting bloodghasts despite my love for their recurring ability.
deck named "cheaty-pod" because more often than not i'm podding THEIR guys.
4x birds of paradise
2x avacyn's pilgrim
3x spellskite
4x wall of roots
2x deceiver exarch
1x loaming shaman
2x sower of temptation
2x glen elendra archmage
3x restoration angel
1x kiki-jiki, mirror breaker
1x zealous conscripts
1x massacre wurm
2x nature's claim
spellskite beats delver and burn (what vapor snag? lol) and i actually upped the count from 2 to 3 because of how incredible it is at protecting your board-state.
the deck is purposefully thin at the top end to avoid drawing into dead cards early and relying too much on the birthing pod.
sower of temptation is an all-star. steal their guy, pod their guy. bonus. comes down cheaper and easier and more effectively than zealous conscripts as i'm running pretty deep into blue for glen elendra, spellskite and exarch. restoration angel resets the sower.
just a word on sower vs. conscripts. this deck isn't looking to beat down early, so the likelihood is that a conscripts won't threaten them into blocking their stolen dude and losing out on trades. Soewr threatens them much more by turning the board in your favour during their turn as well. if you can protect it and maybe even pod off their dudes and reset with angel, you've basically got the game in a bag. it's incredibly effective.
spellskite/glen protects your pod/sower and sower can make surprise blockers for you out of your opponent's dudes. sometimes all you need is sower on the board. pod their guy, restoration angel resets sower. steal another guy... rinse repeat.
final note on having 1x kiki-jiki:
i found having a 1/1/1 split between kiki-jiki, reveillark and loaming shaman allows me to have more of a well-rounded game plan vs more decks. if my kiki dies, i can get it back in one of two ways, but it also allows me to get back OTHER stuff in my deck so it's more versatile. there is an argument about needing pod for this kind of versatility to work, but then if you're comboing off, you'll need the pod anyway. this just allows you to not insta-lose vs. major creature removal.
most consistently useful card in the deck (that nobody expects)? massacre wurm blows out any small-creatures strategy. blowing up their geist of saint traft or delver, huntmaster or snapcaster, various tokens is a BIG game. even if they have a vapor snag, the damage is done. add to that the fact that zealous conscripts let's you cheat from 4-to-6 in the pod chain, it's downright disgusting.
today's lesson. if you're not running conscripts-into-massacre wurm in your pod chain, you're doing it wrong.
It's hard to pin-point the meta is such an open format. If someone would ask me what they should play, or at least what I think is good to take to a Modern GP this weekend, I would say:
Naya Pod
Melira Pod
RUG Delver
WUR Delver
UW Angel/CawBlade
Faeries
Jund
RG Tron
Twin
Storm
Affinity
and then to a lesser extent:
Merfolk
Burn
Zoo
and I guess Tokens
I do expect a lot of Pod decks, it did well at the last GP which is why I have opted for a MD Linvala. I do expect a lot of the aggro control decks. The are all different in their cards but similar in the way they play. Other than that, assuming something doesn't get broken (which I wouldn't be surprised, C-Bus is notorious for breaking formats), I think the remaining decks will see a slice of the meta but won't be so significant for me to alter my deck in a way to skew my deck more favorably against them. I also do think there will be a lot of Merfolk players, at least more than they should be, but I believe most of them will be bad.
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I couldn't imagine running less than 4 chords, with wall of roots adding two mana, I'm almost happier to see chord that I am to see pod. I win far more games off it than I do with pod. The ambush factor along with it's versatility has proven very useful to me, and I almost never have trouble getting the 8 mana for kiki between convoke and mana dorks.
I'll consider a MD linvala, because I am noticing Pod steadily increasing in popularity, but I used to run it, and it was very bad for me in many matchups. A 3 power flier for four isn't what it used to be, I found it was dead against many of my tough matchups, such as storm and tron. It wasn't aggressive enough to do any real damage, and I was finding I was having more trouble casting it that I was casting Kiki-Jiki, though I didn't use Koopa's mana base involving rugged prairie.
@purklefluff
I don't really like massacre wurm, because you don't really want to be podding away your fives and it's a huge strain on your mana base. Exarch itself was a stretch, but it's only 1 blue, and you have a ton of mana dorks and fetches to fix your mana base. Massacre wurm is only hardcastable if you draw it by using 3 BoP, which has happened to me, but I wouldn't rely on it. It's not good enough against the major decks to warrant inclusion, it's not like an elesh norn, where the -2/-2 sticks around. Also, I don't like natures claim because you're playing a pod deck with access to creatures like qasali pridemage and harmonic sliver, which are much better in context. I'm assuming Pilgrim over Hierarch is more a question of budget, so I'll leave that. Just my two cents.
taimla1 on MTGO
Is the same video with Reid Duke at SCG or a separate video? Regardless, I have liked three Kiki's a lot.
Agreed. 4 Chord or bust.
It all depends if you think you will see a lot of Pod decks.
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It could very easily just be my play style, as i tend to be going for value and aggression with the combo as a secondary, since i usually end up playing around everything i can think of.
I also agree that conscripts and 4 chords are a must.
Township has been pretty good for me in MUs like jund where value is king. It's your silver bullet against the midrange decks.
you are correct about pilgrim. *shrug*
my list is currently blue/green/black with lands such as glacial fortress, marsh flats and gemstone mine filling in the white component for angel. obviously this is a budget manabase, but it has always worked for me so far in over 50 games.
i'm fairly heavily into blue for sower of temptation, and most of my lands can produce black or red as well. this allows hardcasting massacre wurm easy. it's never been a dead card in my hand, and because there's only one in the deck, you rarely draw it. bottom line: it's not a problem.
kiki-jiki, however, can be tricky due to his triple red. i've not had a problem so far (as i said, most of my lands can produce red as well) but i can foresee a potential 'dead card' scenario.
with only 2 red cards in the whole deck (singleton zealots, singleton kiki) my deck works fine and consistently comboes off each time i want to. most games i don't even need to, as the pressure from 2-drop-into-exarch-into-sower is just too much for most decks to deal with. podding their guy is a joke.. being able to use sower defensively as well as offensively has saved my butt more than a few times, enabling me to combo off next turn with counter-backup from either spellskite or glen elendra.
it's a good list. give it a go.
i personally would not run pod without a blue contingent. spellskite alone is worth a blue splash, not even counting the powerful sower.
Has anyone tried playing without eternal witness. I just find myself siding it out in nearly every matchup. It rarely gets me any decent value and the only games it's won for me directly or otherwise were by using it as a 3cc 2/1 beater, or as 3cc pod fodder. I think I'd rather use the slot for something more useful, but I'm reluctant to cut it because it is very useful in theory. What are your experiences with it? Has it ever been stellarly good? It's fine or course, but fine doesn't really cut it at a gp.
Also, I agree that sower is nuts, I just can't fit it in. I'm not cutting white because most of my board cards are white, and Angels are nuts, but I wish I could squeeze a sower in, but the mana won't support it, and I can't cut red or green obviously.
taimla1 on MTGO
I might keep Township in, but I rarely activate it. Maybe by just having it in play will cause my opponent's to play differently.
On an unrelated not, I just played against the RBu Reanimator deck. We went to G3 after I mull'd to 4 in Game 2. Turn 4 I have a Finks, and Angel, a Pod, and 4 lands in play. They are all Mountains from Blood Moon. I am 23 life.
On his turn he combos me with Emrakul and attacks. I have a Rugged Prairie in hand so I sac my 4 lands, my Angel, and my Finks and go to 8. I end up podding my Finks for a Redcap and pod that for a Kiki for which I slowly grind him out as he can't set up another combo kill.
It was awesome, this deck is soo good.
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I can't really think of anything at the moment to replace witness with, I was just trying to get other people's input because she's never been amazing for me.
Also, forked bolt or bonfire? Forked bolt seems to have more relevant matches, but bonfire is better in the matchups that it's good in, if that makes any sense. That and I like bonfire against jund, while I do not like forked bolt there at all.
taimla1 on MTGO
I definitely want 2 against the melira build, but the naya build just doesn't seem that weak to it. It happened to be a huge blowout against me because i had two birds, but if i had a birds/noble-less draw, it might as well have been blank.
taimla1 on MTGO
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I probably should be running four Chords, but...there are just so many things I want to be playing, slots are hard. Chord I find awkward, but then I'm not running the full four Wall of Roots either which I guess I also probably should be.
Less than three Kiki still seems horribly wrong to me. Drawing multiple Kiki is not great, but Kiki is not exactly hard to kill. If you never ever cast him unless you're about to combo out then you obviously don't want the set, but he provides tons of value even when you don't have a combo piece in sight, just copying Kitchen Finks and things.
Truth be told I'm strongly considering starting my list over from scratch because there are a number of things I think the current build does wrong but I find it difficult to change things adequately. (This is why I haven't posted it yet either.)
However, I will never be comfortable with 4 Kiki-Jiki, and I like my other card choices too much to bump him up to 3. I've found I can only generally rely on Kiki-Jiki to activate for one turn. Given that he's almost a 5-mana Clone with that in mind, I only play him when I can combo off, when I can copy really good, expensive creatures like Obby Baloth or Reveillark, or when I can kill that turn anyway (there was one situation against RG Artifact Tron when all I needed was a 2-power body with Haste). I doubt I'll get enough value from copying creatures that are 3 mana or less like Kitchen Finks--about the only one of those I'm willing to copy with Kiki-Jiki is Eternal Witness.
2 things:
1) i found that loaming shaman is situationally better than eternal witness, so i run one in main, and one witness in board against heavy artifact removal. it works for me.
2) i found a sweet spot where the only white cards i run are kitchen finks and restoration angel, and seeing as finks is also green, i can run fairly heavy blue/green in the deck, with a splash to accommodate our 5 drop red legend at RRR if you draw it. i never have any issues casting angel as it only needs the one W. and i've dropped kiki down to a singleton as i've got three ways of getting it back into play.
sower of temptation has continually gone up in my estimation. i'm fairly certain she's now the best card in the deck.
yesterday, from a losing board position:
opponent: 2x hero of bladehold
me: pod.
i played wall of roots, then podded from wall of roots into sower (via the cheaty exarch) and stole my opponent's hero of bladehold. used it to block theirs. following turn i podded their hero away fetching a zealous conscripts to take their final hero, played restoration angel blinking the conscripts (to untap my pod) and podded their second hero away to fetch kiki-jiki. then i promptly won with angel/kiki.
sure, i could have comboed up sooner in this scenario... but when i did combo... even if they'd killed kiki, i'd removed his board presence and built up my own. this line of play was safer and more resilient to disruption.
without sower, this kind of abusive play wouldn't be possible.
"naya pod" assumes that all other colour combinations of pod deck are uncompetitive.
this is obviously not the case. there are potential avenues in all five colours. i've been having success playing a bant pod deck.
may i suggest branching pod decks into sub-themes. some are combo, some are control, some are midrange. having one thread isn't good enough at this stage because pod represents so many different strategies. the pod is just the enabler, not the strategy.