I'm not sure I'll work on the deck any longer since I feel it struggles too much against many archetypes.
Merfolk and Zoo crush us, litterally. So I sided Ghostly Prison, which I think could be a MB card (Martyr Proc looks like Tokens more and more as I search for effective cards...) since it hoses Twin as well. When I drew the card it was fine, I easily won. But when it got remanded, I felt so frustrated !
No matter how many anthems we play, Merfolk and Zoo are still bigger than us. And these, with Burn and Affinity, are the most popular and effective aggro decks in the field.
Cards like Zealous Persecution might be overrated and left in the deck while the format has been evolving. Plus, without Delver and Pod, I find the card way too cute. I read here and there "the card is so strong, a build without it is not serious...", but I believe the deck needs something else than these 7-10th pump spells.
The deck misses one strong ingredient to be highly competitive. I hope Wizards prints a busted token lord soon !
UB Tezzeret and The Rack first:
I don't understand why Stony Silence is still a staple in SBs while it doesn't deal with Ensnaring Bridge, and actually many other cards I'm going to talk about in the following lines.
My reasoning has been "ok it shuts down Affinity but doesn't stop an already equipped Plating, or Ensoul Artifact or Champion to race us", also "Tron will get his lands with Sylvan Scrying and Stirrings anyway and Pyroclasm our team once, it actually only stops O-Stone for the best". Of course it shuts down Spellskite and now banned Pod. Oh and it shuts down our own Swords if we get to play some...
A sure weakness I see in the archetype is we have hardly anything to deal with non-creature permanents. Hide // Seek is definitely a very sexy card for a red splash !
One card I see myself play over Stony Silence is Sundering Growth, as a strictly better option. Am I right to think so ? I see its other uses against Batterskull, Bogles, the mirror, Twin, Bloom Titan, Storm...
Another MU, Tron:
Ok Ugin wipes the board for -O, concede. Wurmcoil, hope for a removal. I'm thinking of something that beats Tron in the long run, and I could see Obzedat, Ghost Council as an option (also good VS Ensnaring Bridge, prison strats and wrath effects, that's why I bring him up). As I'm sure the aficionados of the archetype have tried him, what can you guys tell me about his pros and cons ? Only O-Stone can reach him, sounds scary enough.
Another card I want to play as a 1-of is Oblivion Ring / Banishing Light. Why isn't it played ? It's a card we can see in various Martyr Life decks, just saying. No more Pod to deal with but PWs, big guys and so on.
Adding more creatures just make this deck extremly vulnurable to removel. Our greatest advantage is the opposite
It's a good point and I see no reason of not agreeing with you. However, many lists have showed good results with Brimaz + Hero. Cards like Pyroclasm, Anger, Z Persecution, Electrolyze, Forked Bolt, etc... are and will potentially be played en masse in the format and easily kill our tokens, as they always did.
don`t drop it for something bad like Anafenza (What is her Job anyway? PoD is dead.) or Mentor
Anafenza could be a Brimaz in that slot. If I play Brimaz, will you still throw the idea away ? Mentor might not be worth 4 slots (some Delver decks play only 3 Young Pyromancers for the best), and time will say if he improves the archetype. The thing to keep in mind is he doesn't replace spirit generators, he's more in the slot of PWs, Brimaz and Heroes.
It makes a goldfish kill turn 4 :
T 1 : land > Noble.
T 2 : land > Mentor.
T 3 : land > Honor > Honor > Mentor makes 2 tokens and attacks for 7 !
T 4 : any non-creature spell > Mentor and 2 tokens attack for 13 ! Siege Rhino is here a non-creature spell, basically.
I feel Nobles are worth it as straight BW is rather slow. Here I can cast Spirits turn 2 and give exalted, it reminds me of Pod starts : pure satisfaction. Noble also gives Mentor a chance to attack for 3.
The addition of Township (the manabase is Pod manabase basically) seems insane, as anthems are maybe the strongest synergy we can have with tokens.
I get rid of Inqui for Decays, which are way better topdecks. Rhinos are that strong, not less. If the meta gets unfavourable, PWs are waiting on the bench. Voice is an upgrade to Raise the Alarm. Haunting could be Anafenza, the Foremost, but I actually like the instant speed aspect (as with Decay VS Inqui) it provides : good with Mentor and his monks.
Overall, if I follow the Honor route, I feel like splashing a 3rd colour is the way to go. Playing my Pod creatures feels good also.
I'm on the Honor side of the archetype, with Mentors and 3/4's.
Why ? Well first, Mentor. I really believe he's worth some trust. Yes it's slower than Pyro, but it actually counter-curves rather nicely with Honor + 1 cmc spells on turn 4. You do swing with Mentor, and the tokens are very often 3-4 power. I don't feel like he needs Zealous Persecution to avoid red removals, but if you play that spell, you should easily keep him on board. The good thing is we don't need to over-extend with him. I just beated a Green ramp deck that played 6/6's and 4/x stompy dudes... by attacking through them !
I'd be very curious to know what are the downsides some of you guys find about him.
Then, Hero and Brimaz go along with Honor in order to fight Siege Rhino and Tarmogoyf. I don't believe tokens alone can do much in the format. We have to race ramp decks too, which tokens have trouble with.
Overall, adding Mentor gives the 3/4's a better chance to survive, as removals will cease to crush our board at one time or another. The other option I see is to MB Mirran Crusader, which seems counter-intuitive now Pod is dead, but Bx and Gx decks from everywhere could rise. The one bad thing is ramp decks play Pyroclasm (and alike).
24 lands and Tectonic Edges. I noticed ramp decks destroyed us, so I guess having land destruction is key if we think Scapeshift, Bloom Titan, Tron and Through the Breach are going to be among the decks to beat in the upcoming metagame.
Sorin. Tell me guys why I should play Elspeth V1 or V2 ? On the paper, Sorin gives lifelink in the MB, which seems crucial to race Burn and aggro decks during game 1. I remember Sorin was one scary card when I used to play Pod. I don't see myself MB-ing Reinforcements, I mean that looks like a desperate move since the card is not a good MB card.
The SB doesn't make much sense for now (no new meta yet), but if you have advice, I'll take it all !
Archmage is obviously the MVP in blue, but Kira is also very good: blanks spot removals, protects the combo, protects Pod food, trades with Delver, and so on. Ruins along with 8 artifacts has done a good job for me: get back a Pod, Spellskite or Metamorph is really good. Also good with... Wurmcoil: because of the synergy with Ruins, I play it over Titan, but I believe Wurmcoil is better. Batterskull is very bad in the deck, don't run it if ever it came to mind. Treetop could be Grim Backwoods or another land. This slot is very bad. Abzan Pod remains way better in terms of manabase.
We need a Doomwake as an Orzhov Pontiff effect, I don't know how to do otherwise with tokens and dorks all around (and he loves being copied by Metamorphs). It explains a little bit Courser as another trigger, but I found the card to be excellent, even in Angel Pod.
Now the combo : Varolz is meh, but Biomancer is great: it gives an edge in the creatures MUs, the Pod MUs, and has good synergies with:
- Metamorph (stack the counters),
- Redcap, as it deals 4 then 3 damage when ETB,
- Archmage as she's a 4/4 flyer, good VS angels,
- all the x/2s that don't die to Anger of the gods (and less) anymore, etc...
The delve / dredge / recursive direction for the archetype is interesting though. I've been disappointed by Sidisi so far, but I didn't dedicate the whole deck to her.
The deck is overall less good than Abzan Pod. It's still very competitive (tier 3, maybe 2, if it was played), but who would play a worse version of Abzan ?
Even after I boarded in all my discard he naturally keeps a double Crab all fetch land/Ghost quarter hand, so my discard hits nothing
Personnally I play my 75 in this MU. Game 1 is usually unwinnable. Game 2 they will have trouble milling 72-5 cards before their hand is empty. It may sound laughable but I had mots of my wins by getting a thicker deck, simply.
This, however, is a bad matchup for him
You sure ? Maybe now with Rhinos and all, but sor far, I've always struggled against this deck, if well-played by the player. They have a strong late game (Shackles, Batterskull, Cryptic /snap), and so do we. But there's several versions of the archetype (Vial or not, Blood Moon plan, etc...), so I can't really judge who was favored between the two of you. What kind of version does he play ?
...You actually don't have to splash blue to play Body Double though...your mana dorks tap for blue and you'll be Podding for it way more often than drawing it.
It used to work fine back in 2012, maybe. I'm not against playing an extra color, it's just going to be clunkier than a straight Abzan version. Most players will prefer a 3rd-4th Rhino rather than a Pod + a Body double (in the library or in hand with a 0/1 dork alive) + a Rhino to copy in the graveyard. They'll also prefer 1 Resto, and 2 Restos, before they play Body Double again.
Now yes, when you can set up the thing (let's say with Lark), it's really cool, as it's cool to set up a combo of any sort with only 3 colors.
how do people usually handle Bogles?
The way you did, apparently. Bogles is very hard to beat for most decks in the format when they draw well. You need to take smart decisions starting with your opening hand. There are MUs where you may need to mull hard, and this is one of them. Thoughtseize is not the best card against them (they should draw a lot of cards), you need more than that in your opening hand. Actually TS is a good card here when it's coupled with a key card like Spellskite or Chalice of the Void.
Whether the deck is a winner in your local meta, you may want Fracturing Gust x2. Kataki is a very easy cut right now, I'm not sure to understand why you still play him.
I think you do want 2 Rhinos and 1 Body Double for maximum value
The blue splash is not worth it unless you're playing in a very specific field. In the mirror, Scooze and Anafenza (which should get more attention because of the last top8's); Living End runs the discard Faerie and land denial; Tron has MB grave hate; combo decks mostly don't care about value game 1, etc...
I agree with the ones who think 4 Rhinos are 1 too many, in the overall metagame. But then again, it's a matter of what the build aims. As we have close to no chance game 1 against combo decks (let's take the bad days as reference), it's very understandable to see players have a MB aggro build, with or without a combo, AND with a very safe manabase. Because these builds are very good against Delver and other aggro MUs, they just need a strong SB package to ensure victory game 2 and 3 against the rest of the meta.
But as the ban announcement is coming, I'm not sure it's relevant to take sides about Pod versions since the meta may start to drastically change by Monday !
As a Pod player, I lost a game where my opponent had Hibernation. It bounced my Choke, my Finks and a dork at end of his turn, untapped, and dealt me 13 damage in that turn with a flipped Delver, a 5/6 swifspear and 2 burn spells. Excellent win by him.
If Pod is a problem, why not ban Kitchen Finks ? The card is a 3-of that helps survive and reach the midgame. Mainly Pod decks play the creature (other decks that'd play it have easy replacements). It's the best interactive card with Pod, Resto, combo pieces.
Wizards' goal will never be to annihilate an archetype, but nerf it down.
This option goes along with TC ban, and possible AV as a substitution.
About BBE in a RUG shell, I think of Eternal Command. A pretty good deck. Blue doesn't always need counterspells to be good (e.g. Shardless BUG in Leg).
I understand you. Living End and some other Jund decks are also very boring with Fulmiboy. The fifth shockland is fine with 8 fetchlands, I don't think anybody would really argue with that. The choice of Obzedat surely affected BBD's manabase, that creature is pretty annoying to hardcast.
About Gavony, the data should actually contain 2 things : manascrews and mulligans. I know other non-green lands can force mulls but the 3rd Gavony is definitely a land to specifically check when one plays your mana configuration.
Any comments from him about the matchups he uses Chord and which cards he usually Chords for?
Chord into Mindcensor against Scapeshift, probably the first use. Indeed Sage against Affinity and various MUs, Spellskite VS aggro decks and others.
Only 1 Chord in that kind of SB strat can be fine as well.
The real question I have, is why Anfenza x3 ? I'm curious to see how it plays out.
I'm in the clan of the no-ban-this-time. I want some cards to be unbanned, to let other decks rise up and defeat Pod and Delve decks. It may be time for WotC to give some demonized cards a chance and power up minor archetypes (which altogether represent a vast variety of the game).
The statement that new editions make some decks better and better to the point other archetypes can't follow up seems true. There's a new potential Pod creature in almost every set, and Young Pyro followed by delve cards pushed blue as a dominant color, which is imho already one noticeable weirdness in Legacy.
TC is on everyone's lips. I want to make a comparison with Pod, which is discussed as being a potential worthy ban : if we ban Pod, Pod is dead everywhere : Legacy Pod is weak, and the card isn't played anywhere else. Pod gives Modern part of its identity. You want to play Pod ? Play modern. While TC is played everywhere, so banning it in modern wouldn't kill the card. And I want to talk about other cards that are played everywhere (understand Mod, Leg, Vint, and T2 when legal) : Delver of Secrets and Young Pyromancer. These cards are staples and are played in the same archetype. Are they worth a ban ?
Right now, Pod is very strong but strong decks beat it : Delver, Twin, Scapeshift, etc... Many decks that actually can keep up with Pod thanks to the delve spells, or the addition of strong cards on their own, luckily sharing the same colors. I do believe many of the non-blue cards on the banlist should help other archetypes to be viable.
Merfolk and Zoo crush us, litterally. So I sided Ghostly Prison, which I think could be a MB card (Martyr Proc looks like Tokens more and more as I search for effective cards...) since it hoses Twin as well. When I drew the card it was fine, I easily won. But when it got remanded, I felt so frustrated !
No matter how many anthems we play, Merfolk and Zoo are still bigger than us. And these, with Burn and Affinity, are the most popular and effective aggro decks in the field.
Cards like Zealous Persecution might be overrated and left in the deck while the format has been evolving. Plus, without Delver and Pod, I find the card way too cute. I read here and there "the card is so strong, a build without it is not serious...", but I believe the deck needs something else than these 7-10th pump spells.
The deck misses one strong ingredient to be highly competitive. I hope Wizards prints a busted token lord soon !
UB Tezzeret and The Rack first:
I don't understand why Stony Silence is still a staple in SBs while it doesn't deal with Ensnaring Bridge, and actually many other cards I'm going to talk about in the following lines.
My reasoning has been "ok it shuts down Affinity but doesn't stop an already equipped Plating, or Ensoul Artifact or Champion to race us", also "Tron will get his lands with Sylvan Scrying and Stirrings anyway and Pyroclasm our team once, it actually only stops O-Stone for the best". Of course it shuts down Spellskite and now banned Pod. Oh and it shuts down our own Swords if we get to play some...
A sure weakness I see in the archetype is we have hardly anything to deal with non-creature permanents. Hide // Seek is definitely a very sexy card for a red splash !
One card I see myself play over Stony Silence is Sundering Growth, as a strictly better option. Am I right to think so ? I see its other uses against Batterskull, Bogles, the mirror, Twin, Bloom Titan, Storm...
Another MU, Tron:
Ok Ugin wipes the board for -O, concede. Wurmcoil, hope for a removal. I'm thinking of something that beats Tron in the long run, and I could see Obzedat, Ghost Council as an option (also good VS Ensnaring Bridge, prison strats and wrath effects, that's why I bring him up). As I'm sure the aficionados of the archetype have tried him, what can you guys tell me about his pros and cons ? Only O-Stone can reach him, sounds scary enough.
Another card I want to play as a 1-of is Oblivion Ring / Banishing Light. Why isn't it played ? It's a card we can see in various Martyr Life decks, just saying. No more Pod to deal with but PWs, big guys and so on.
It's a good point and I see no reason of not agreeing with you. However, many lists have showed good results with Brimaz + Hero. Cards like Pyroclasm, Anger, Z Persecution, Electrolyze, Forked Bolt, etc... are and will potentially be played en masse in the format and easily kill our tokens, as they always did.
Anafenza could be a Brimaz in that slot. If I play Brimaz, will you still throw the idea away ?
Mentor might not be worth 4 slots (some Delver decks play only 3 Young Pyromancers for the best), and time will say if he improves the archetype. The thing to keep in mind is he doesn't replace spirit generators, he's more in the slot of PWs, Brimaz and Heroes.
Are Brave the Elements, Mutagenic Growth and Emerged Unscathed to cute to protect our creatures ? We've seen this strat to protect Swifspear in Burn, but I don't know the idea has been dropped entirely.
I'm interested in the Abzan version posted on the previous page... By adding green, I can upgrade my BW list above such as :
3 Siege Rhino
4 Monastery Mentor
3 Voice of Resurgence
4 Noble Hierarch
Other spells:
2 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
4 Honor of the Pure
4 Lingering Souls
2 Midnight Haunting
3 Abrupt Decay
4 Path to Exile
4 Thoughtseize
4 Windswept Heath
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Godless Shrine
1 Temple Garden
3 Razorverge Thicket
3 Gavony Township
1 Forest
2 Plains
2 Swamp
It makes a goldfish kill turn 4 :
T 1 : land > Noble.
T 2 : land > Mentor.
T 3 : land > Honor > Honor > Mentor makes 2 tokens and attacks for 7 !
T 4 : any non-creature spell > Mentor and 2 tokens attack for 13 ! Siege Rhino is here a non-creature spell, basically.
I feel Nobles are worth it as straight BW is rather slow. Here I can cast Spirits turn 2 and give exalted, it reminds me of Pod starts : pure satisfaction. Noble also gives Mentor a chance to attack for 3.
The addition of Township (the manabase is Pod manabase basically) seems insane, as anthems are maybe the strongest synergy we can have with tokens.
I get rid of Inqui for Decays, which are way better topdecks.
Rhinos are that strong, not less. If the meta gets unfavourable, PWs are waiting on the bench.
Voice is an upgrade to Raise the Alarm.
Haunting could be Anafenza, the Foremost, but I actually like the instant speed aspect (as with Decay VS Inqui) it provides : good with Mentor and his monks.
Overall, if I follow the Honor route, I feel like splashing a 3rd colour is the way to go. Playing my Pod creatures feels good also.
Here's the list I'm freshly trying out :
2 Hero of Bladehold
2 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
4 Monastery Mentor
Other spells:
3 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
4 Honor of the Pure
4 Lingering Souls
4 Spectral Procession
2 Raise the Alarm
4 Path to Exile
4 Thoughtseize
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Godless Shrine
4 Isolated Chapel
5 Plains
2 Swamp
2 Windbrisk Heights
3 Tectonic Edge
3 Timely Reinforcements
2 Sundering Growth
2 Mirran Crusader
2 Eidolon of Rhetoric
2 Sin Collector
2 Aven Mindcensor
2 Stony Silence
I'm on the Honor side of the archetype, with Mentors and 3/4's.
Why ? Well first, Mentor. I really believe he's worth some trust. Yes it's slower than Pyro, but it actually counter-curves rather nicely with Honor + 1 cmc spells on turn 4. You do swing with Mentor, and the tokens are very often 3-4 power. I don't feel like he needs Zealous Persecution to avoid red removals, but if you play that spell, you should easily keep him on board. The good thing is we don't need to over-extend with him. I just beated a Green ramp deck that played 6/6's and 4/x stompy dudes... by attacking through them !
I'd be very curious to know what are the downsides some of you guys find about him.
Then, Hero and Brimaz go along with Honor in order to fight Siege Rhino and Tarmogoyf. I don't believe tokens alone can do much in the format. We have to race ramp decks too, which tokens have trouble with.
Overall, adding Mentor gives the 3/4's a better chance to survive, as removals will cease to crush our board at one time or another. The other option I see is to MB Mirran Crusader, which seems counter-intuitive now Pod is dead, but Bx and Gx decks from everywhere could rise. The one bad thing is ramp decks play Pyroclasm (and alike).
24 lands and Tectonic Edges. I noticed ramp decks destroyed us, so I guess having land destruction is key if we think Scapeshift, Bloom Titan, Tron and Through the Breach are going to be among the decks to beat in the upcoming metagame.
Sorin. Tell me guys why I should play Elspeth V1 or V2 ? On the paper, Sorin gives lifelink in the MB, which seems crucial to race Burn and aggro decks during game 1. I remember Sorin was one scary card when I used to play Pod. I don't see myself MB-ing Reinforcements, I mean that looks like a desperate move since the card is not a good MB card.
The SB doesn't make much sense for now (no new meta yet), but if you have advice, I'll take it all !
Modern is dead. Long live Modern !
I've been playing Sultai Pod a lot these last months, right now I'm here :
2 Thoughtseize
3 Abrupt Decay
4 Birthing Pod
Creatures:
4 Birds of Paradise
3 Noble Hierarch
3 Strangleroot Geist
1 Wall of Roots
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Spellskite
3 Kitchen Finks
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Courser of Kruphix
1 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
1 Varolz, the Scar-Striped
1 Master Biomancer
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
2 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Murderous Redcap
1 Doomwake Giant
1 Shriekmaw
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Watery Grave
2 Overgrown Tomb
2 Breeding Pool
1 Island
1 Swamp
3 Forest
1 Woodland Cemetery
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Academy Ruins
1 Hinterland Harbor
1 Treetop Village
Archmage is obviously the MVP in blue, but Kira is also very good: blanks spot removals, protects the combo, protects Pod food, trades with Delver, and so on.
Ruins along with 8 artifacts has done a good job for me: get back a Pod, Spellskite or Metamorph is really good. Also good with...
Wurmcoil: because of the synergy with Ruins, I play it over Titan, but I believe Wurmcoil is better. Batterskull is very bad in the deck, don't run it if ever it came to mind.
Treetop could be Grim Backwoods or another land. This slot is very bad. Abzan Pod remains way better in terms of manabase.
We need a Doomwake as an Orzhov Pontiff effect, I don't know how to do otherwise with tokens and dorks all around (and he loves being copied by Metamorphs). It explains a little bit Courser as another trigger, but I found the card to be excellent, even in Angel Pod.
Now the combo : Varolz is meh, but Biomancer is great: it gives an edge in the creatures MUs, the Pod MUs, and has good synergies with:
- Metamorph (stack the counters),
- Redcap, as it deals 4 then 3 damage when ETB,
- Archmage as she's a 4/4 flyer, good VS angels,
- all the x/2s that don't die to Anger of the gods (and less) anymore, etc...
2 Thoughtseize
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Putrefy
2 Hurkyl's Recall
3 Negate
1 Sower of Temptation
1 Acidic Slime
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Dismember
1 Obstinate Baloth
The removals I'm not satisfied with, well, whatever. Recall and Sower are great blue additions.
We may think of Tasigur, the Golden Fang as a good guy. Maybe Temur Sabertooth.
The delve / dredge / recursive direction for the archetype is interesting though. I've been disappointed by Sidisi so far, but I didn't dedicate the whole deck to her.
The deck is overall less good than Abzan Pod. It's still very competitive (tier 3, maybe 2, if it was played), but who would play a worse version of Abzan ?
Personnally I play my 75 in this MU. Game 1 is usually unwinnable. Game 2 they will have trouble milling 72-5 cards before their hand is empty. It may sound laughable but I had mots of my wins by getting a thicker deck, simply.
You sure ? Maybe now with Rhinos and all, but sor far, I've always struggled against this deck, if well-played by the player. They have a strong late game (Shackles, Batterskull, Cryptic /snap), and so do we. But there's several versions of the archetype (Vial or not, Blood Moon plan, etc...), so I can't really judge who was favored between the two of you. What kind of version does he play ?
It used to work fine back in 2012, maybe. I'm not against playing an extra color, it's just going to be clunkier than a straight Abzan version. Most players will prefer a 3rd-4th Rhino rather than a Pod + a Body double (in the library or in hand with a 0/1 dork alive) + a Rhino to copy in the graveyard. They'll also prefer 1 Resto, and 2 Restos, before they play Body Double again.
Now yes, when you can set up the thing (let's say with Lark), it's really cool, as it's cool to set up a combo of any sort with only 3 colors.
The way you did, apparently. Bogles is very hard to beat for most decks in the format when they draw well. You need to take smart decisions starting with your opening hand. There are MUs where you may need to mull hard, and this is one of them. Thoughtseize is not the best card against them (they should draw a lot of cards), you need more than that in your opening hand. Actually TS is a good card here when it's coupled with a key card like Spellskite or Chalice of the Void.
Whether the deck is a winner in your local meta, you may want Fracturing Gust x2. Kataki is a very easy cut right now, I'm not sure to understand why you still play him.
The blue splash is not worth it unless you're playing in a very specific field. In the mirror, Scooze and Anafenza (which should get more attention because of the last top8's); Living End runs the discard Faerie and land denial; Tron has MB grave hate; combo decks mostly don't care about value game 1, etc...
I agree with the ones who think 4 Rhinos are 1 too many, in the overall metagame. But then again, it's a matter of what the build aims. As we have close to no chance game 1 against combo decks (let's take the bad days as reference), it's very understandable to see players have a MB aggro build, with or without a combo, AND with a very safe manabase. Because these builds are very good against Delver and other aggro MUs, they just need a strong SB package to ensure victory game 2 and 3 against the rest of the meta.
But as the ban announcement is coming, I'm not sure it's relevant to take sides about Pod versions since the meta may start to drastically change by Monday !
If Pod is a problem, why not ban Kitchen Finks ? The card is a 3-of that helps survive and reach the midgame. Mainly Pod decks play the creature (other decks that'd play it have easy replacements). It's the best interactive card with Pod, Resto, combo pieces.
Wizards' goal will never be to annihilate an archetype, but nerf it down.
This option goes along with TC ban, and possible AV as a substitution.
About BBE in a RUG shell, I think of Eternal Command. A pretty good deck. Blue doesn't always need counterspells to be good (e.g. Shardless BUG in Leg).
About Gavony, the data should actually contain 2 things : manascrews and mulligans. I know other non-green lands can force mulls but the 3rd Gavony is definitely a land to specifically check when one plays your mana configuration.
Chord into Mindcensor against Scapeshift, probably the first use. Indeed Sage against Affinity and various MUs, Spellskite VS aggro decks and others.
Only 1 Chord in that kind of SB strat can be fine as well.
The real question I have, is why Anfenza x3 ? I'm curious to see how it plays out.
The statement that new editions make some decks better and better to the point other archetypes can't follow up seems true. There's a new potential Pod creature in almost every set, and Young Pyro followed by delve cards pushed blue as a dominant color, which is imho already one noticeable weirdness in Legacy.
TC is on everyone's lips. I want to make a comparison with Pod, which is discussed as being a potential worthy ban : if we ban Pod, Pod is dead everywhere : Legacy Pod is weak, and the card isn't played anywhere else. Pod gives Modern part of its identity. You want to play Pod ? Play modern. While TC is played everywhere, so banning it in modern wouldn't kill the card. And I want to talk about other cards that are played everywhere (understand Mod, Leg, Vint, and T2 when legal) : Delver of Secrets and Young Pyromancer. These cards are staples and are played in the same archetype. Are they worth a ban ?
Right now, Pod is very strong but strong decks beat it : Delver, Twin, Scapeshift, etc... Many decks that actually can keep up with Pod thanks to the delve spells, or the addition of strong cards on their own, luckily sharing the same colors. I do believe many of the non-blue cards on the banlist should help other archetypes to be viable.