I don't play unpowered-cubes that often (I normally play peasant), but it seems easily doable. All the cards are powerful on their own, except maybe pestermite, but that can change pretty easily.
I don't play unpowered-cubes that often (I normally play peasant), but it seems easily doable. All the cards are powerful on their own, except maybe pestermite, but that can change pretty easily.
You definitely can. I'd say the deck comes together about every 3 drafts in my cube. Pestermite isn't bad. reveillark and birthing pod is an absolute beating by the way.
In our experience, it is a card that has a hard time making main decks, but when it does it's really good (just as many other build-around-me cards). I'm happy with it, it's one of the green toolbox cards and offers something really interesting and unique in green.
I still run it, but it's definitely a card that's hard to make work. It will eventually be cut from my cube, but it's just such a cool card that I don't want to exclude it
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This card kicked total ass this weekend, in both GW and GB shells. I think I went from Vorapede to Sun Titan once, but mostly it was used to get two or three casting cost answer creatures, like Bone Shredder, Fiend Hunter, and the sex monkeys.
It's early days in our testing of it, but so far, so good.
While certainly not for everyone, my cube has 4 gravecrawers, 2 bloodghasts, 4 Birthing Pods and a muck of other themed shenanigins, so the bygone from standard "Zombie Pod" is my personal favorite.
Favorites: Gravecrawler --> B1 1/1 flying entomb (Bloodghast) -> Land, Bloodghast into Messenger --> Gravecrawler into Blood Artist, recast, Hymn out their last 2 cards
I'll admit it does cost a lot of life, and can sometimes merit a few lands to avoid that cost.
I know the breaking of singleton makes a lot of people uneasy around here, but if you're curious, check out the article "Reconstruction, Part 1" on Channel Fireball by Jason Waddell (Can't link since I'm at work)
He goes into more detail about pod and zombies in that article.
Another piece of tech is the availablty of cheap clones (Phantasmal Image, Sakashima's Student). If anyone forgot, clones copy the converted mana cost of the creature, so a 1 drop can be podded into a Phantasmal Image that clones a 4 drop, which then gets podded into a 5 drop next turn.
I'm of the opinion you can probably make any card work in cube if you try hard enough; Scornful Egotist is playable in the right enviornment.
What's possible is in the effort to support aggro and control, some of the ETB guys have been left on the wayside. Alot of them were/are in the green abd black sections, so look there first.
I found it was a lot harder to build around pod than build a stax deck. And I never really built around jar. That card is more about timing than anything else.
When I see Healing Salve, I'm often like "Oh girl, I wish I could turn every card into this." Thanks they removed the gain life part, otherwise this would have been broken.
Posted this in the wrong thread, but yeah, my green decks usually have no trouble having drops from 1-5, which is usually all you need for Birthing Pod to be very good.
Birthing Pod was cool once or twice in the past 5 or so drafts I've had it in, but it never really lived up to it's potential. The problem for me is that it just wasn't as good as ramping usually. Spending t2 or t3 playing pod was usually just worse than Kodama's Reach. There's already cool tutor effects in green with GSZ and Natural Order, so I don't feel like I'm losing much by cutting pod.
Don't get me wrong, Pod is the kind of Magic card I like. Ok in the average case scenario, can be powerful if built around, but also fits into different strategies in interesting ways. It was part 2 that killed it. Even when built around, the existing cards in the cube are just too much better. Although I like playing with relatively high power level cards, it does mean some potentially fun cards can't make the cut. Trade offs, I suppose.
Birthing Pod was cool once or twice in the past 5 or so drafts I've had it in, but it never really lived up to it's potential. The problem for me is that it just wasn't as good as ramping usually. Spending t2 or t3 playing pod was usually just worse than Kodama's Reach. There's already cool tutor effects in green with GSZ and Natural Order, so I don't feel like I'm losing much by cutting pod.
Don't get me wrong, Pod is the kind of Magic card I like. Ok in the average case scenario, can be powerful if built around, but also fits into different strategies in interesting ways. It was part 2 that killed it. Even when built around, the existing cards in the cube are just too much better. Although I like playing with relatively high power level cards, it does mean some potentially fun cards can't make the cut. Trade offs, I suppose.
This sounds like you were playing the card very differently than I do. I'm not sure how it is "supposed" to be played, but I would never drop it instead of casting a ramp spell or a fattie (unless I needed an answer that it could provide ASAP). Pod tends to come down in the mid to late game, after I have run much of my hand out, and then I just start upgrading my creatures, all the while getting amazing come-into-play effects.
For example, I had a game where I ramped into Vorapede turn three, and he got plaowed (damn you white control!). I then dropped pod, and turned my efl into a > Wall of Blossoms > Viridian Shaman (see ya Icy) > Master of the Wild Hunt and then started upgrading wolves, eventually turning Master into Thragtusk (Wrath protection) and Prime Titan.
The card is much slower than GSZ or Natural Order, but often more brutal, especially in the control matchup where green ramp struggles.
What are people's thoughts on this card nowadays? We're testing it out right now but the sorcery clause is holding it back. There were a couple of instances when the lone 6-drop was drawn so the chain was limited.
I've been thinking about this card a bit recently as well, as we are glimpse drafting now and archtypes are much easier to put together. I love the card in theory, but it never worked for me when I Winston drafted. I've since sold my foil copy, so it would take high praise from the community here to motivate me to pay for another copy.
I personally love it and have never regretted including it. It's one of the most rewarding archetypes to support and features a lot of overlap with blink and Survival strategies, both cube classics.
The biggest downside is figuring out when to draft it. It can be far too easy for the some of my more conservative drafters to never move in: early on is too committing from their point of view, later requires them to warp their existing deck. That's a problem with every engine card in cube, but Pod has it worse than most. Most of my drafters are of the more assertive sort, however, and are willing to readily make that kind of committment.
I ran it for a bit, but it got cut because even though it makes a good draft-around card, sometimes you don't get a proper chain. It usually takes quite a bit of star alignment for you to get it early enough to keep a chain in mind AND have the proper CMC creatures appear. It's awkward when your deck doesn't have a 5 drop to chain up to your 6 and 7.
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Pod can be quite powerful, but you do have to keep it in mind while drafting. You don't have to have a 2-8 chain to make it good. You just need a solid 2-5 chain and ways to take advantage of the creatures in the graveyard or ways to bring them back. Pod doesn't get played every time it comes up, but when it does get played it's pretty awesome.
Yeah Birthing Pod is one of my favorite cards in the cube. Sure it doesn't go in every deck but I like cards that make you put some work into it and rewards you for doing so. My fave is with Sneak Attack. Such madness.
Mileage varies for everyone of course, but this is exactly the sort of card I want in cube. It encourages build-arounds, it slots (if quirkily) into a number of different archetypes, it forces good decision making, and the power level is often high but variable. We love it at ~375, and have no plans to take it out.
i guess its better depending on the amount of etb effects in your cube as well.
i really like the idea of having lightning mauler constantly soulbond with guys in a pod chain. O_O
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I don't play unpowered-cubes that often (I normally play peasant), but it seems easily doable. All the cards are powerful on their own, except maybe pestermite, but that can change pretty easily.
You definitely can. I'd say the deck comes together about every 3 drafts in my cube. Pestermite isn't bad. reveillark and birthing pod is an absolute beating by the way.
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It's early days in our testing of it, but so far, so good.
Favorites: Gravecrawler --> B1 1/1 flying entomb (Bloodghast) -> Land, Bloodghast into Messenger --> Gravecrawler into Blood Artist, recast, Hymn out their last 2 cards
I'll admit it does cost a lot of life, and can sometimes merit a few lands to avoid that cost.
I know the breaking of singleton makes a lot of people uneasy around here, but if you're curious, check out the article "Reconstruction, Part 1" on Channel Fireball by Jason Waddell (Can't link since I'm at work)
He goes into more detail about pod and zombies in that article.
Another piece of tech is the availablty of cheap clones (Phantasmal Image, Sakashima's Student). If anyone forgot, clones copy the converted mana cost of the creature, so a 1 drop can be podded into a Phantasmal Image that clones a 4 drop, which then gets podded into a 5 drop next turn.
I'm of the opinion you can probably make any card work in cube if you try hard enough; Scornful Egotist is playable in the right enviornment.
What's possible is in the effort to support aggro and control, some of the ETB guys have been left on the wayside. Alot of them were/are in the green abd black sections, so look there first.
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You don't pay attention to your curve all the time as you draft creature decks ? =/
-AA
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Don't get me wrong, Pod is the kind of Magic card I like. Ok in the average case scenario, can be powerful if built around, but also fits into different strategies in interesting ways. It was part 2 that killed it. Even when built around, the existing cards in the cube are just too much better. Although I like playing with relatively high power level cards, it does mean some potentially fun cards can't make the cut. Trade offs, I suppose.
This sounds like you were playing the card very differently than I do. I'm not sure how it is "supposed" to be played, but I would never drop it instead of casting a ramp spell or a fattie (unless I needed an answer that it could provide ASAP). Pod tends to come down in the mid to late game, after I have run much of my hand out, and then I just start upgrading my creatures, all the while getting amazing come-into-play effects.
For example, I had a game where I ramped into Vorapede turn three, and he got plaowed (damn you white control!). I then dropped pod, and turned my efl into a > Wall of Blossoms > Viridian Shaman (see ya Icy) > Master of the Wild Hunt and then started upgrading wolves, eventually turning Master into Thragtusk (Wrath protection) and Prime Titan.
The card is much slower than GSZ or Natural Order, but often more brutal, especially in the control matchup where green ramp struggles.
The biggest downside is figuring out when to draft it. It can be far too easy for the some of my more conservative drafters to never move in: early on is too committing from their point of view, later requires them to warp their existing deck. That's a problem with every engine card in cube, but Pod has it worse than most. Most of my drafters are of the more assertive sort, however, and are willing to readily make that kind of committment.
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