After taking a break from Standard for a few weeks, my friend and I were bouncing ideas around for what to bring to the new season. We are both rather underwhelmed by the new Pod lists floating around. After some analysis we concluded the problem was the G/W/x shell. There really aren't any good reasons to be in White other than Elesh Norn and Sun Titan. Bladesplicer was awesome until Delver took over and Vapor Snagging the Golem token became a common play. It also had the unfortunate need to run 7+ Mana dorks to begin to work- kind of a vulnerability. Ramp Pod also could be halted by one or two well timed removal spells.
What we found is that Birthing Pod turns every Undying creature into a better Bloobraid Elf. Since we don't recycle our Graveyard, Skaab Ruinator and Grim Lavamancer don't really have a downside. Also, Beast Within and Fling can provide stupid amounts of reach or card advantage with Undying. It kind of feels like cheating when you Fling your Strangleroot Geist to clear out the chump blocker. Or Pod him into Vulshok Heartstoker, swinging for 5, and Flinging the Geist end of turn.
Match-ups are pretty good across the board. It eats Delver alive, it loves playing against Wolf-Run Ramp, and its crazy reach gives it the decisive edge over U/W Humans. U/B Control gets buried by Skaab Ruinator and the Pod/Undying Engine, the Ramp Pod lists don't have enough reach to compete with this deck, and so far the worst match is Frites- Elesh Norns that don't die are basically the only thing that I've had trouble with.
This list is still a fairly early draft, and I'm looking for any critiques you've got on the main deck and/or any ideas for the sideboard.
I agree that RUG has some good options, but other than Ruinator, which is clunky at best, I don't see how the deck has much reach. The whole point of Birthing Pod is to curve into cheap, awesome fatties. Acidic Slime into Inferno/Frost/Wurmcoil way too key for Pod decks to simply ignore.
I like the idea of your deck, but it looks like your list would be more efficient simply running a set of flings, and Mortorpods.
Trying to mimic the Naya, I've put together a full on RUG list, and I'd be curious to get some feedback.
So we set to brewing, and this is the result:
4 Hinterland Harbor
2 Sulfur Falls
2 Rootbound Crag
7 Forest
1 Mountain
3 Island
2 Goblin Arsonist
1 Grim Lavamancer
4 Strangleroot Geist
2 Perilous Myr
2 Phantasmal Image
3 Stormbound Geist
1 Skaab Ruinator
1 Vulshok Heartstoker
1 Blisterstick Shaman
4 Huntmaster of the Fells//Ravager of the Fells
2 Phyrexian Metamorph
3 Beast Within
3 Fling
What we found is that Birthing Pod turns every Undying creature into a better Bloobraid Elf. Since we don't recycle our Graveyard, Skaab Ruinator and Grim Lavamancer don't really have a downside. Also, Beast Within and Fling can provide stupid amounts of reach or card advantage with Undying. It kind of feels like cheating when you Fling your Strangleroot Geist to clear out the chump blocker. Or Pod him into Vulshok Heartstoker, swinging for 5, and Flinging the Geist end of turn.
Match-ups are pretty good across the board. It eats Delver alive, it loves playing against Wolf-Run Ramp, and its crazy reach gives it the decisive edge over U/W Humans. U/B Control gets buried by Skaab Ruinator and the Pod/Undying Engine, the Ramp Pod lists don't have enough reach to compete with this deck, and so far the worst match is Frites- Elesh Norns that don't die are basically the only thing that I've had trouble with.
This list is still a fairly early draft, and I'm looking for any critiques you've got on the main deck and/or any ideas for the sideboard.
I like the idea of your deck, but it looks like your list would be more efficient simply running a set of flings, and Mortorpods.
Trying to mimic the Naya, I've put together a full on RUG list, and I'd be curious to get some feedback.
4 Copperline Gorge
4 Sulfur Falls
4 Evolving Wilds
2 Rootbound Crag
1 Hinterland Harbor
6 Forest
2 Island
1 Mountain
Creatures
1 Grim Lavamancer
1 Spellskite
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Dawntreader Elk
4 Phantasmal Image
3 Strangleroot Geist
2 Aether Adept
1 Daybreak Ranger
2 Dungeon Geists
4 Ravager of the Fells
1 Acidic Slime
1 Urabrask the Hidden
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Inferno Titan
1 Frost Titan
1 Consecrated Sphinx
4 Birthing Pod
3 Corrupted Conscience
3 Slagstorm
3 Ratchet Bomb
1 Trinket Mage
1 Manic Vandal
1 Acidic Slime
2 Nihil Spellbomb
Modern
Dredge, Evo-Chord, U/G Faeries, Living End, Something New